Los Angeles County is a majority-renter metropolitan area with 55% of its residents renting. Of every major metropolitan area in the nation, Los Angeles has the lowest rate of homeownership! Our housing stock is increasingly being bought up by corporate landlords and Wall St. investors who, more interested in profits than people, have raised rent on us and displaced our neighbors .

Los Angeles County is now the third most rent-burdened metropolitan area in the nation.

• 1 in 4 renters (25%) are moderately rent-burdened paying over 30% of their household income to rent
• 3 in 10 renters (31%) are severely rent-burdened paying over half of their household income for rent.

Our neighbors have had to cut back on food, transportation, and other expenses for housing; those who couldn’t keep up with rent were forced out of their communities; fewer and fewer Angelenos are able to become homeowners— the most reliable way of building generational wealth — and fall back into the cycle of poverty.

What is TOPA

It doesn’t have to be like this! Right now, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering he Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) which would give tenants the first opportunity to buy the rental building they live in if and when the building owner decides to sell. TOPA would help us

• Prevent the displacement of low-income communities of color;
• Create permanently affordable housing;
• Create affordable pathways for tenants to become homeowners;
• Reduce the burden of rent and stabilize housing for existing tenants;
• Give tenants choice and decision-making power regarding housing;
• Protect housing from speculative investment by keeping them in democratic residential control.

How we can win TOPA

We know that TOPA is strong, proven strategy that will help us decommodify housing, convert tenants into owners, and wrestle back power from corporate interests back into our neighborhoods.

Join us in urging the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors: the time to pass TOPA in Los Angeles County is now!

For more information, visit our website at www.topa.la and follow our Instagram @lacltcoalition.