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Sandra Sanchez described the headaches as strong. They come on when she starts thinking where she, her husband and two sons will live. In order to build a larger apartment complex, her landlord plans to demolish the six-unit bungalow court in South Los Angeles that the family has called home for decades.

With her husband earning only $38,000 a year at a nearby factory, and rent in nearby apartments costings hundreds of dollars more than they now pay, the stress can be overwhelming. “They are sending us to live on the streets,” said Sanchez, 55. Some tenant advocates worry such demolition and displacement could become more common in Los Angeles.



Currently, the owner of Sanchez’s apartment complex is using one of the city’s building incentive programs that allows developers to build more than they usually can if they include at least some income-restricted affordable units in the new project. Now, in an effort to build more housing to alleviate the affordability crisis, the city is proposing to supercharge those incentive programs in a way that could result in such projects making even more financial sense to undertake. Officials are proposing to do so on land already zoned for multifamily housing, where people tend to be renters, not in neighborhoods zoned for single-family houses where people tend to own.

That fact has raised concerns among a coalition of tenant and housing advocates who want the city to shift course to reduce displacement. Of particular concern? The .

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