After months of waiting for eminent domain to move forward, the tenants find out that the housing department negotiated a secret deal with their landlord. What the tenants did next, and where things stand now… on the final episode of this series. (Spoiler alert: it’s not over).

If you heard just one thing about Hillside Villa before listening to this podcast, you probably heard about May 27th, 2022. The day that LA City Council voted on buying Hillside Villa through eminent domain. It was a huge deal. It felt like the tenants had won. But the real story is much more complicated than that. This week, eminent domain’s long legacy of displacement, a national affordable housing crisis, and the tenants’ innovative campaign to turn eminent domain on its head.

So you want to build a tenant association, but don’t know how? Sometimes it takes just one person to get things going. At Hillside Villa, that person was Luisa Ramirez. We’re gonna show you, step by step, how Luisa and her neighbors built their tenant association. How they held their first meeting right under management’s nose; how they successfully lobbied their council member; and how they paid an early-morning wake-up call to their landlord in Malibu... after he refused to sign a deal that...

Welcome to Hillside Villa, an apartment complex overlooking Chinatown where the rent stayed affordable while the rest of the neighborhood changed around it. For decades, it was a place where working-class Angelenos could raise their kids and live in community with their neighbors. And then, one day in 2018, all that was threatened. Because their landlord served the tenants with rent increases that were basically eviction notices.   Note: At the start of this episode, we incorrectly...

This is The Tenant Association, a new podcast series from LA Public Press. It’s about neighbors in an apartment complex in Chinatown, who got a rent increase that was basically an eviction notice… and organized against their landlord instead. They’ve become a political force to be reckoned with, and changed what we think is possible for renters in LA. The tenants of Hillside Villa have been fighting for six years, and they’re not done. This is the story of the Hillside Villa Tenant...

Most Sunday nights, Jamel will make a nice meal for himself and Daisy, and they’ll sit down to watch the football together.   Daisy is his best friend – a 14-year-old beagle.   Right now, Jamel and Daisy are living in a semi-converted garage. Jamel's looking for a better and more stable place to live – but he’s been turned away from housing because he refuses to be separated from Daisy.    Over the last few months, Jamel has been keeping an audio diary for LA Public Press, to give us a sense...

The notorious former city council member Jose Huizar has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking millions in bribes from developers, selling out Boyle Heights, downtown LA, and the rest of his district. We went on a field trip to the sentencing, and this week on the show — we’re taking you there. With recordings and analysis from LAPP’s own Nancy Meza, Phoenix Tso, Elizabeth Chou, Mariah Castañeda and Carla Green.   Plus, an exciting update about the future of Smogland Radio.   For...

This week, we’ve got the second edition of Renter’s Hotline, our tenant advice segment. This time, Dominique called in about an issue that her dad is having at his apartment building in Paramount, where the landlord keeps raising the rent on Dominique’s father and other tenants with housing vouchers. She got advice from lawyer Gina Hong and organizer Chris Estrada from the Los Angeles Center for Community Law and Action. Plus, a dispatch from team Shampoolio at a MacArthur Park mutual aid...

This week, six scenes from all over Los Angeles (okay, including one in Joshua Tree). Footage of a neighborhood council meeting, obtained through a public records request. An unusual guard animal in El Sereno. A renowned musician at the Día de los Muertos celebration on Olvera Street. Two different stargazing trips — one successful, one not so successful. And an anxious dog at a punk show. We’re REALLY going on a little journey across LA together.

This week, we’re spending the show with two Los Angeles-area organizers on the fight for Palestinians in the wake of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign that has now killed more than 11,000 Gazans. Noa Kattler-Kupetz grew up in the conservative Jewish movement in Los Angeles, but now organizes with If Not Now and is calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s apartheid system. And Rida Hamida is a Palestinian-American Muslim organizer who has long been doing intersectional work to unite...

This week, we’re spending the entire show with the residents of one encampment on the edge of Culver City. When they learned they were facing a sweep designed to displace them, the residents of the encampment decided to fight to stay there. They’d formed a community on Jasmine Avenue. And they felt safe on that block, right next to a large Catholic church and school. But then they found out who was leading the campaign to displace them.

This week, we got a tip about something going down at the Bell Gardens city council, so managing editor Adrian Baumann and LA county reporter Ashley Orona went to investigate. Plus, a dispatch from the Aetna Street community in the San Fernando Valley, where unhoused residents say it feels like the city has put a target on their back.   NOTE: This episode was updated with a small development in the story of the Bell Gardens recall and a correction to the location of the Bicycle Casino (it's...

This week, we’re digging into why we have just fourteen truly public bathrooms in Los Angeles. Reporter Maylin Tu talks about the history of those fourteen bathrooms, why we don’t seem to be getting many more (even with the Olympics looming), and how it all relates to the criminalization of poverty and homelessness. Plus, we have a eulogy — for now! — of another historic Little Tokyo business: Anzen Hardware.

This week, we’re going to the Southeast LA city of Huntington Park, where street vendors and vendor advocates have found themselves in an unsettling battle with the city. Plus, our correspondent Ruth tells us why her relationship with Staples is… complicated. You can find the videos Ruth references in her story here (https://x.com/FilmThePoliceLA/status/1650613941071155200?s=20) and here (https://x.com/FilmThePoliceLA/status/1650228253251231744?s=20)

This week, we’ve got a report on mutual aid groups who are trying their best to keep people from going hungry — since government assistance isn’t nearly enough. And, we’re going for a walk through Little Tokyo and Skid Row with Theo Henderson, host of the podcast We the Unhoused (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-the-unhoused/id1490017575). Plus, community updates on Star Garden, Suehiro, and more. For more information on Suehiro, visit...

This week, we’re talking with LA Public Press city reporter Elizabeth Chou, who’s been reporting on a motel in Chatsworth where dozens of formerly-unhoused Valley residents now live. Mayor Karen Bass recently held a press conference at the hotel… but the residents weren’t invited to the press conference, or even told what it was about. Instead, they were told they had to stay in their rooms and listen through the windows. And some reported leaks during Hurricane Hilary on Sunday. Plus,...

This week, we’ve got the first edition of Renter’s Hotline, a tenant advice segment. Our first tenant called in from her apartment in West Adams, where she’s had problems with lead paint and a smoldering electrical fire (!!) in her ceiling. And, a dispatch from a man who thinks Venice is the best place in the world, but had to leave to be part of Mayor Karen Bass's Inside Safe program. Plus, headlines from this week’s news, including an update on our hot labor summer, Hillside Villa, and a...

Welcome to the first episode of Smogland Radio. This week — it’s budget time. We’re diving deep into the Los Angeles County Budget with LA Public Press reporter Ashley Orona. We’ve also got a story from a tenant who was harassed by his landlord until he organized with his fellow tenants, and our first submission from our correspondent, Ruth. Plus, headlines from this week’s news.  

Introducing Smogland Radio, a news podcast by and for LA from Los Angeles Public Press. We’ll have reporting that holds powerful people accountable, advice on how to thrive in Los Angeles, and in-depth stories about the issues that affect all of us. The first episode of Smogland Radio will be out on June 29th. It'll publish monthly for the first couple episodes, and then twice a month after that. Subscribe now to get episodes as soon as they're released!