> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Living in the wake of TORCA - URL: https://www.smdp.com/living-in-the-wake-of-torca/ - Published: 2006-03-01T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T17:18:53.000Z - Author: Kevin Herrera - Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Skyrocketing prices keep renters renting* NORTH OF WILSHIRE— When Josephine Vidal returns from work to her rent-controlled apartment on 12th Street, she is grateful that for the last six years she has been able to provide a stable, loving home for her grandson. When he was 5 years old, his mother died unexpectedly, leaving Vidal, 68, with the responsibility of caring for him. She welcomed her grandson into her small one-bedroom apartment, where the two have made a life together despite the odds, both emotionally and financially. “It’s not much, but we make do with what we have,” Vidal said. But the life she and her now 11-year-old grandson have created is in jeopardy. The owner of their apartment building, which is located north of Wilshire Boulevard, is seeking to convert Vidal’s unit into a condominium and sell it to whomever can afford the asking price of $650,000\. For Vidal, a journalist who pays $850 a month in rent, purchasing her unit is not economically feasible. Fearing eviction due to the potential sale, Vidal also is worried that she won’t be able to find another affordable apartment in Santa Monica, where the average rent for a one-bedroom is $1,300\. If she has to move out of the city, she worries about what will happen to her grandson. “After all that has happened to him, I don’t want to have to pull him out of school and move somewhere unfamiliar,” Vidal said. The two are casualties of TORCA, or the Tenant Ownership Rights Charter Amendment, which was passed by voters here in 1984. The Santa Monica legislation allowed the unlimited conversion of existing apartment buildings into condos, provided that two-thirds of the tenants in those buildings approved of the conversion and there was a sufficient number who agreed to purchase their units. On June 30, 1996, the law expired, but property owners who submitted conversion applications prior to that date and have kept them current remain eligible for conversion. RENTERS NOT BUYING IN Tenants who have lived in their units prior to submitting their conversion applications — known as participating tenants — are protected from owner-occupancy eviction if the unit is sold. Non-participating tenants such as Vidal, who moved in after the conversion was approved, have no defense against owner-occupancy evictions. Santa Monica Rent Control Board officials said 3,243 units have been approved for conversion. Of those units, 60 percent were purchased and are now owner-occupied by people who originally approved the conversion, or moved in afterwards. Twenty percent are occupied by participating tenants who have not yet purchased their unit, and the remaining 20 percent are non-participating. The intent of the law was to allow tenants to be the first to purchase their units, thereby increasing the number of homeowners in a city that is dominated by renters. Nearly a decade after the sunset of TORCA, housing officials, as well as supporters and opponents say the law has failed in its original intent, since only about 10 percent of tenants living in their apartments at the time of conversion have purchased their units — a fraction of the 60 percent of owner-occupied condos. “That’s not to say that the converted units didn’t provide the opportunity for people to enter homeownership,” said Mary Ann Yurkonis, administrator of the Rent Control Board. “But it also decreased the potential supply of affordable rental units, so there is a trade off … If you are asking me if TORCA has served its purpose, no it didn’t. At least not the purpose it was originally put forward to do, which was to provide tenants with an opportunity for ownership, because less than 10 percent were ever purchased by those people, which means the sale resulted in dislocation in many cases.” BUILDING ABUSIVE LANDLORDS There have been other ill effects besides evictions and relocations, the law’s opponents said. The city’s affordable housing stock has decreased, some say by 8 percent, while the harassment of tenants by landlords has increased, driving out a working class that has made Santa Monica what it is today. The City Attorney’s office, which investigates claims of landlord abuse, has seen an increase in complaints from tenants who are both participating and who are not participating in the program, said Eda Suh, a deputy city attorney. Complaints have ranged from tenants claiming their landlords don’t make routine repairs to outright threats by property owners who want tenants out so they can sell the units and make large profits. “The market is really driving the harassment, and TORCA has made it even easier for owners to abuse the process,” said Denny Zane, co-founder of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, which for decades has tried to protect the city’s affordable housing stock. “We have had reports where property owners are offering to pay people move-out money or they are neglecting the unit. They are doing whatever they can to get people out because the profits are just too high to pass up. “They are renting one-bedrooms for, say, $1,100 or even $1,500, but can sell them for $600,000 to even $800,000 per unit. Take a building with 10 or 15 units and you’re talking about quite a bit of money. The temptation is just too great.” Vidal, who moved into her apartment in 1995 before landlords were allowed to raise the rent to market rate once a rent-controlled tenant moved out, said she has felt the pressure from her landlord to move, including being offered thousands of dollars to relocate. Beyond being told by her landlord daily that her eviction is imminent, Vidal said the property owner told her he would make it easy on her if she moved out within 30 days. She received a letter Jan. 24 from her property owner that offered to delay selling the unit for 45 days if she agreed to leave. Vidal refused, and she said since then the landlord has allowed prospective buyers to come into her apartment three to four days a week for several hours at a time. “It’s like they’re selling the apartment as if it was empty,” she said. “It’s never-ending harassment … and on top of that, it’s forcing me to work toward my eviction. By letting (buyers) in, I’m helping the owners sell my place right out from under me.” Vidal’s neighbors said they also have been harassed, including Robert Friedman, a participating tenant with eviction protections under TORCA. Friedman agreed to the conversion several years ago but never bought the unit. As a result, the condo was sold to a buyer who was allegedly told by the landlord that Friedman was moving to “the desert.” When the buyer found out that Friedman had no intention of leaving, she begged him to move. The request soon turned to threats, including anti-Semitic insults and statements suggesting that he would be forced out, Friedman says. “I understand why she’s upset,” Friedman said. “If I was paying a $3,000 a month mortgage on a place that was only bringing in $1,300 a month in rent, I would be angry too, but the threats have to stop.” Repeated phone calls to the property owner seeking comment went unreturned. TENANTS SEEK SHELTER Vidal and others said they have complained about the harassment to the Rent Control Board and the City Attorney, but many feel their complaints have gone unanswered. “Every time I call, it’s like, ‘Get a lawyer,’” said Robert Illes, a renter in Vidal’s apartment complex. “I don’t see them doing much … If they don’t do something soon, (the Rent Control Board) won’t have any more constituents left to protect.” Officials in the City Attorney and Rent Control offices said they are aware of the complaints and are investigating. “Should a landlord attempt to effect a fraudulent owner-occupancy eviction … both the affected tenant and the board can file an action against the owner pursuant to the rent control law for wrongful eviction and seek both actual and punitive damages,” said David Daniels, general counsel for the rent control office at City Hall. “The board’s legal staff continues to assess whether there are cases that warrant prosecution for wrongful eviction.” Suh, the deputy city attorney, said her office has the resources to adequately monitor complaints and does so each time one is levied. MARKET MAYHEM No one knows exactly why so many tenants who approved the conversions have not yet purchased their units. Some say the prices have skyrocketed beyond what those tenants could pay when they first agreed to condos. Others may have moved for business or personal reasons. Zane said many tenants are still renting because the selling price negotiated between the tenant and property owner was only fixed for two years after the conversion, and has since skyrocketed. “What’s the hurry for the seller, especially if the market goes way up?” Zane said. “That provision just undermined the whole intent of the law … Somebody got a good deal, but not the Santa Monica renter.” TORCA’S TWO FACES Not everyone is ready to call TORCA a complete loss. Paul DeSantis, an attorney who helped author TORCA legislation, said the law has added protections for tenants who would normally be evicted by new condo construction. Older apartment buildings also have been spared, preserving classic architecture while providing homeownership opportunities to young professionals and middle-class families who cannot afford homes here or recently constructed con-dos that are selling for $1 million or more. “It really has become TORCA or nothing for many new buyers,” DeSantis said. “It’s either TORCA or Mar Vista … TORCA is allowing young people and families to stay in Santa Monica. TORCA has helped maintain the economic diversity of the city, and we have saved a number of turn-of-the-century craftsman homes with big, beautiful courtyards. Without TORCA, those units would certainly have been lost and those renters and young families would have moved to the (San Fernando) Valley.” Under TORCA, a city tax equal to 12 times the maximum allowable rent is placed on units that are converted to con-dos, which generates revenue used for the construction of low-to moderate-income housing and to finance loans for tenants looking to buy, city officials said. To date, about $25 million has been collected from the condo conversion tax, as well as equity received from the sale of city-financed condos, said Jim Kemper, senior administrative analyst for City Hall’s housing division. According to the most recent data from City Hall, as of June 2005, $16 million had been spent on housing projects, including the rehabilitation of homes and apartments, and for homeownership loan programs. The remainder has been allocated to other capital improvement project accounts. Kemper said the tax from conversions and equity generated from the loan program has brought in at least $1 million annually for the last four years. Loans have been limited, however, as the costs of condos have risen. DeSantis is aware of the harassment by landlords, but he said that represents only a small fraction of property owners in Santa Monica. “The City Attorney’s office has done an excellent job of enforcement, and we have one of the strongest laws against harassment,” he said. “I’m not saying harassment isn’t done, but it is done a lot less down here than in other cities.” DeSantis said he supports low-income apartments, but he also said Santa Monica suffers from too many renters and TORCA has helped strike a balance. “Two-thirds of the people living in Santa Monica are renters who on the average stay in one place for 14 to 15 months,” he said. “People in TORCA units stay on average seven years or more. What this does is create a greater sense of community. You have people who really have a stake in what happens here and are committed to the future of the city. They are your backbone.” But what about long-time renters like Vidal? “We are just as much an important part of the community as (those who own their homes),” she said. Vidal’s grandson was once a fragile young boy, but has come to love his life in Santa Monica and has blossomed. He is an aspiring cellist, a member of his school’s orchestra and a strong student as well, Vidal said proudly. “When his mother left us, I was naturally concerned about him, how he would handle this situation of living in a new place without his mother with him,” she said. “Today, he is doing so well … but who knows what will happen to us when we have to leave.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)