CRIMINAL COMPLAINT TO LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY REGARDING Los Angeles Housing Department Widespread Corruption [READ DOCUMENT HERE!]

THE FAIR HOUSING COALITION
http://TheFairHousingCoalition.com
Silver Lake Branch 
Los Angeles, CA 90026 (323) 660-2932


District Attorney's Office
County of Los Angeles
Public Integrity Division
320 West Temple Street, Room 766
Los Angeles, CA 90012


February 21, 2012


Re: Corruption in the City of Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), City Council and Mayor’s Office


To whom it may concern:


THE FAIR HOUSING COALITION is a group of rental housing providers dedicated to putting an end to the wide-spread landlord abuse regularly dispensed by the LAHD at the behest of the City Council, Mayor, and the five “non-profit” agencies who contract with the City of Los Angeles to assist with “Outreach” to tenants.


The above referenced elected officials and department managers have placed themselves above state and federal law…and even the Los Angeles Municipal Code and policies of LAHD…in executing their duties and as outlined below.


The list of statutes and codes violated by the above-referenced officials includes but is not limited to the following:


1) CCC§ 1941.2 et seq,, which states that landlords have no duty to repair dilapidation if the tenant is in substantial violation of his/her obligation to keep their unit clean and sanitary and to refrain from damaging their unit. LAHD ignores this code and makes landlords civilly and criminally liable for all code violations even when the tenant is responsible.


2) REAP Regulations 1200.4 (E) and (F), which require notices of inspections and hearings to be sent to the home address of owners via “certified mail, return receipt requested”. These Regulations further require that the US Post Office Certified Mail Receipt be placed into the LAHD file for the subject property.


LAHD frequently sends these notices to addresses other than that of the owners and fail to send in the manner prescribed by LAHD’s own policies.


Despite numerous legal actions for violations of procedural due process filed by owners for the violations listed in number 2 above, LAHD continues to flagrantly violate these procedural due process requirements.


Thus, notices of inspections and hearings often arrive too late for owners to timely comply and owners are prosecuted for “failure to comply” despite the culpability of city officials in failing to provide “notice and the opportunity to be heard” that the most basic of due process protections require.


3) REAP Regulations §1200.4(A), which states the time allotted for compliance with “Notices to Comply,” and/or appeals; and/or disallowing valid appeal requests.


4) LAHD often refuses to relinquish REAP funds; a) after repairs were completed, or b) refused to relinquish funds after your valid request for needed funds to complete repairs;


5) LAHD criminally prosecutes owners for non-habitability issues such as a lost building permit and which is outside the scope of authority of LAHD “habitability inspections”.


6) LAHD contracts with alleged “non-profit” agencies to do “Outreach”, which frequently means approaching tenants and telling them to call LAHD for alleged code violations in order to have the contractual rent reduced by as much as 50% if the tenant agrees to pay rent to the city instead of to the owner. This incentivizes tenants to create violations and/or prevent the repair thereof.


At least one of these contractors…Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice…has interested developers as corporate sponsors who stand to benefit from confiscation or foreclosure of rental property.


6) Abuses often occur in areas that are eligible to receive government funds for “purchase and rehabilitation” of residential real property or in areas that have recently been rezoned or that have density increases so as to maximize profits for corporate cronies of council persons.


We demand action from the District Attorney’s Office as these abuses have occurred for 30 or 40 years despite civil actions and despite many, many complaints from housing providers directed to the City Council and Mayor.


The supply of rental housing has decreased from approximately 710,000 in 1980 to approximately 600,000 today. Thus, it is obvious that the benefit for these draconian and illegal government acts is not to the public and begs the question as to who is benefitting from these corrupt actions.


Please contact Carol Knapp or Bill Hooey in response to this request.


Sincerely,
___________________
Carol Knapp


cc: Zuma Dogg (ZumaDogg@Gmail.com)


ADDITIONAL NOTE FROM ZD: L.A. City/L.A. Housing Dept. LOST an October 2011 SUPERIOR COURT RULING, saying LAHD has been citing Building & Safety code -- and that is illegal. People have been fined, ILLEGALLY, by LAHD, as they have been fining for B&S code, that the court said was illegal. THEN, liens are placed on the properties, and they are lost to the city. This whole "SYSTEMATIC CODE ENFORCEMENT" and LAHD (RENT ESCROW/REAP) is under FBI INVESTIGATION. And this related to that. This letter/complaint to D.A. is the AFTERMATH of what happens, when they break the law, in the first place...and you CANNOT get off the hook of the corrupt machine/LA CITY HALL.