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# Tenants prepare for civil disobedience
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/tenants-prepare-for-civil-disobedience/
- Published: 2005-10-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:02:04.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Venice, #archive-import, Homeless

*Lincoln Place tenants hanging on to homes*

VENICE — Entrenched tenants determined not to hand over their homes to their landlord are preparing to take the battle out of the courts and into a nearby cul-de-sac, where they plan to erect a tent city they believe may rally political support for their cause.

The 180 households that remain at Lincoln Place, a 54-year-old post-World War II apartment complex located on the 1000 block of Elkgrove Avenue, protested during a Los Angeles City Council meeting and a city planning meeting on Tuesday in an effort to spark political intervention regarding their imminent evictions. The tenants are being evicted by Denver-based Apartment Investment Management Co. (AIMCO), one of the largest real estate management corporations in the country.

The firm plans to redevelop the property into condominiums.

Dozens of residents carried sleeping bags and pillows with them into the council and planning meetings and, later, were expected to erect tents on the grass outside Los Angeles City Hall. Lincoln Place tenants said they plan to move the tent city onto Elkgrove Circle, a cul-de-sac located in the center of Lincoln Place. From there, they say they will continue to protest the evictions until politicians act on their behalf.

On Sunday, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose jurisdiction includes Lincoln Place, attended the tenants’ association meeting, where he heard from hundreds of residents and shared his concerns over their plight.

Rosendahl — who is against the erection of a tent city — urged AIMCO and Lincoln Place tenants on Tuesday to come to a settlement without any forced evictions.

“Bill was touched on Sunday by the tenants who spoke, and he held many of them in his arms,” said Safiya Jones, Rosendahl’s spokeswoman. “He wants a better alternative to the tenants than evictions, so he asked that AIMCO put them off for a week to try to reach a settlement. But he is also very against the idea of a tent city.

“He doesn’t want to see families living in the street.”

Linda Young, a 30-year Lincoln Place tenant, said a reconciliation with their landlord is unlikely. She added that Lincoln Place tenants believe they are acting lawfully and rightfully — and AIMCO is not.

Young, who is disabled and didn’t attend Tuesday’s protest due to a doctor’s appointment, said Lincoln Place tenants are fighting on principle.

“AIMCO is the largest rental agency in the U.S.,” Young said. “There is a disparity between rich and poor. There is no middle class, no rights for renters and no American dream.

“That’s why we’re fighting.”

NO PLACE LIKE HOME Lincoln Place, a garden-style campus of 52 buildings built in 1951, is a 38-acre site located east of Lincoln Boulevard and south of Rose Avenue. It was originally backed by the Federal Housing Authority to support World War II veterans and their families. However, it always has been privately owned.

Once offering 795 affordable apartments, the site has been largely abandoned in the face of an ongoing legal debacle that began shortly after 1992, when the property owner proposed a redevelopment plan that called for 850 units to be built on the site, most of which would be market-rate condominiums.

Currently at 20 percent occupancy, Lincoln Place continues to be rented by as many as 180 tenants. Those residents, along with representatives from other organizations, are fighting AIMCO’s redevelopment plans.

AIMCO said it offered tenants a generous relocation package, which has played a large part in the site’s declining occupancy. Some tenants moved to Hawaii, and others took the money to buy houses, said Patti Schwayder, a company spokeswoman. Last spring, AIMCO offered to provide remaining tenants rent-controlled apartments within its new development plans. Tenants refused the proposal, and the offer was taken off the table in March.

After a court ruling, AIMCO began serving eviction notices on July 18 to residents who continued to stay. The move, however, is being challenged in court by the tenants.

Lincoln Place residents Frieda Marlin, 81, and her son, Spike, 53, filed for declaratory relief in Los Angeles Superior Court last June. They are asking for clarification as to how AIMCO can use the Ellis Act to evict them.

The Ellis Act, passed by the California legislature in 1986, was designed as a way for landlords to sell their property in order to get out of the rental business. Legal advocates for the tenants contend AIMCO — a corporate landlord that owns 50 apartment complexes in California — is not going out of the rental business. Therefore, they argue, AIMCO is forfeit from exercising the Ellis Act.

Tenants say there is an injunction in place to prevent their eviction until the court makes a decision. AIMCO contends there is no injunction in place and a countersuit by tenants to clarify their rights will not be upheld in court. AIMCO says the law’s parameters already have been largely defined.

According to AIMCO, seniors and the disabled have until March to relocate, while other tenants are expected to be out already. AIMCO is not accepting rent from any tenants and considers them squatters.

While Lincoln Place still retains much of its charm, several buildings are faded and boarded up, with “no trespassing signs” placed on doors of abandoned units.

On Tuesday, several homeless could be seen squatting in corners. One elderly man, wearing dirty clothes and a beanie, said he just moved in and pointed inside an apartment. The door was broken off its hinge.

However, tenants who still live at Lincoln Place have taken steps to revitalize their homes. One building looks as though it has just received a fresh coat of orange paint. Many windows and doorsteps of the occupied units are decorated with flowers, American flags and peace signs, as well as banners that say “Preserve Lincoln Place” and “There’s no place like home.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/102605-03_01.jpg)

The remaining tenants of Lincoln Place are protesting their imminent evictions and hope to gain political support from the Los Angeles community. (Photo: Ryan Hyatt/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 26, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)