When a judge ruled in June that the owner of the Barrington Plaza in West Los Angeles llegally tried to evict nearly 600 of the building’s residents, the decision was hailed as a victory for those trying to protect rent-controlled housing in a market with sky-high rental rates.
In truth, Barrington Plaza’s owner, Douglas Emmett Inc., was found to have violated a condition of a law that was written to favor landlords — that is, the company tripped up on a technicality. The bigger problem, tenants’ rights experts say, is the law itself, which paves the way for mass evictions of those living in rent-controlled buildings.
