December 30, 2022
Los Angeles. As the result of a Rent Stabilization Complaint (RSO), the city has cited a property owner under the city new Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance. But the city stopped short of ordering a reduction in rent for reduction of housing services. As a result the complainant, a Black male tenant, has accused the city of racism and named Mayor Karen Bass as a participant in pattern and practice denial of housing services. The civil penalty imposed here is in the ordinance “Any rental unit subject to the Rent Stabilization Ordinance of the City of Los Angeles which becomes vacant as a result of a violation of any provision of this article shall only be permitted to be rented at the lawful rent in effect at the time of the most recent termination of tenancy”. The RSO decision below did not indicate specifically the actions that the city feels are illegal harassment. But the city letter also did not indicate why the City under Mayor Karen Bass feels that denial of intercom maintenance and reduction of parking from two cars to one, is not a reduction in services. The city had previously in 2015 ordered the rent control tenant to suffer a rent increase that included payment of wiring for an intercom system only provided to 15 of 18 tenants but not to the Black tenants. The landlord is Hi Point 1522 LLC of Santa Monica and property management Power Property Management Inc. The tenant response to the action appears below.
December 29, 2022
Subject: Racist closure of LAHD case CE273371 – Housing Services still denied – DFEH file 202201- 15997931—Owner Found Liable for Illegal Harassment
From: GJohnson( )
To: lahd.rso.central@lacity.org; mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org
cc: meghan@boldpartnersre.com; highpoint1522@gmail.com; brent@powerpropertygrp.com; thomas@powerpropertygrp.com; frontdesk@powerpropertygrp.com; mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org; lahd.rso.central@lacity.org; councilmember.price@lacity.org; councilmember.lee@lacity.org; paul.koretz@lacity.org; councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org; hcidla.reap@lacity.org; 09e41e7459a05677911c@powerpropertygroup.mailer.appfolio.us; hcidla.rso.central@lacity.org; contactcd4@lacity.org; francisco.ortega@lacity.org; tiffany.prescott@hacla.org; lactd@lacity.org; controller.mejia@lacity.org; contact.lapdonline@gmail.com
Date: Thursday, December 29, 2022 at 09:11 AM PST
Dear Ann Sewill, Tricia Keane, Anna E. Ortega, Los Angeles Housing Department,
Vi Dang, Agassi Topchian, Mayor Karen R. Bass:
1. I have received your notice of case closure dated December 28, 2022. I am forwarding by this letter a copy of such case closure to the property owner as well as city council members.
2. I did not receive any phone calls or letters from the LAHD Vi Dang, or anyone else, to discuss the documentation forwarded to your department.
3. Other than a warning letter dated December 13, 2022, sent to the owner by your department, it does not appear that your department had any discussion with the property owner either. Your decision therefore is arbitrary, capricious, and unjust in terms of not restoring the services requested or recognizing that there has been a reduction of services.
4. Your case closure is vague and lacking in specificity as to how you arrived at the statement “you did not substantiate a rent increase nor a reduction of housing services have occurred”. I disagree with that position.
5. I ask for a thorough review of the file by the office of Mayor Karen Bass and I request a thorough review of the file by the city attorneys office for the LAHD overall failure based on my race, sex, and age to provide the housing services requested.
6. Please provide to me any appeal rights on this matter.
7. If there are no appeal rights, I plan to file for a court review under a Writ of Mandate. If you have any objections, let me know.
8. The documents and pictures supplied to the LAHD indicate the services provided at the inception of tenancy, and available at the inception of tenancy, to tenants unit 9, including myself as one of two Black males. I was provided with a tandem parking stall #14 in 2010 (inception of tenancy) and the rent agreement indicates parking for two vehicles. The change in terms of tenancy submitted by the owner and signed by me proves that we were assigned to stall #14 and asked to move to stall #8 (a single car stall). That is a reduction in parking and a condition assumed by the current owner of the property. In terms of the intercom and repairs, at the inception of the tenancy, we were entitled to unlimited maintenance per the rent agreement only conditioned upon reporting the need for repairs of items that are not my personal items or due to fault of mine. The unlimited repairs have been reduced to the point the intercom has not been repaired or replaced. Finally I gave you information, which has apparently been ignored, that the owner thru Thomas Khammar admitted in a court proceeding that I am entitled to a working intercom—he said that the building needs to be rewired— and in the same court proceeding he said we are entitled to parking for two vehicles—“tandem parking”—because he made the statement, false, that we already have parking for two vehicles. If any LAHD employee was not racially biased against me, then they would not have issued the decision that services have not been reduced. The owner admitted it in the documentation.
9. The LAHD notice of case closure does seem to admit that the owner has engaged in unlawful harassment against me because of the denial of requested housing services.
10. I continue to pay an illegal rent because maintenance has been reduced from the entitled “unlimited” repairs, and the parking continues to be reduced from parking for two cars to parking for one car. For that I will be filing a a new LAHD complaint as the conditions and damages are continuing, under the continuing rent agreement.
11. Seems the LAHD has a lot of power to assure that tenants do not get fair housing
services. Thousands of tenants across Los Angeles have working intercoms and parking for two cars. I question how does a Black tenant like myself get fair housing services in a city run by a Black woman Mayor like Karen Bass and is this the city pattern and practice we can expect under the Bass reign?
12. Thru this letter which will be forwarded to the Police Department, I ask that the Police pursue criminal penalties against the owner per the ordinance including but not limited to $1000 for each offense.
All rights reserved.
Geary Juan Johnson
1522 Hi Point St 9
Los Angeles CA 90035
Phone ( )
cc: city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto
DFEH file 202201-15997931
December 22, 2022
Subject: Services Still Not Provided at 1522 Hi Point St Apts —
Worker Cement is Destroying Flooring–LAHD Case CE273371
From: GJohnson ( )
To: highpoint1522@gmail.com; brent@powerpropertygrp.com; thomas@powerpropertygrp.com; meghan@boldpartnersre.com; frontdesk@powerpropertygrp.com
cc: mayor.helpdesk@lacity.org; lahd.rso.central@lacity.org; councilmember.price@lacity.org; councilmember.lee@lacity.org; paul.koretz@lacity.org; councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org; hcidla.reap@lacity.org; 09e41e7459a05677911c@powerpropertygroup.mailer.appfolio.us; hcidla.rso.central@lacity.org; contactcd4@lacity.org; francisco.ortega@lacity.org; tiffany.prescott@hacla.org; lactd@lacity.org
Date: Thursday, December 22, 2022 at 10:00 AM PST
Dear Meghan Haynes, Owner, and Hi Point 1522 LLC:
1. I was told the building would be re-wired to repair the non-working intercom at unit 9. I continue to be damaged when friends, relatives, and delivery persons are not able to access me thru the non-working intercom. Today more damages occurred when a UPS driver could not reach me on the intercom and the package was stolen. Loss $36.00. When will the repair will be made? Contractors have told me contrary to what Khammar said, that the intercom can be repaired in less than a day just running a wire or two less than 20 feet.
2. I was told by Thommas Khammar that unit 9 is assigned and entitled to a tandem parking stall. Khammar has not responded to which is the stall # tandem that he says we are assigned to for apartment unit 9, nor has he responded to if it is the case of two parking stalls, then which two are we assigned to. I continue to be damaged. There are numerous construction projects on the street creating loads of dust and debris. My car continues to be damaged. Street parking is more and more scarce due to curbs being blocked off for construction. I may have to get a street parking permit for a block away which I will bill you for the damages of $35.00 per year. My observation is there is parking for 28 cars and there are 18 one bedrooms. There are extra vacant stalls.
3. I notice you installed new flooring in the hallways, and probably also in some units. Someone also did some concrete construction in the units or the laundry room; there is concrete dust etc in the parking lot and near the back door. My concern is that the concrete dust is being tracked thru the building. If it is concrete, it is potentially scratching the flooring in the entire building and over time will do great damage. I suggest that you hose down the parking lot to clean out the concrete dust.
4. I still notice that the rear building door does not operate as intended in that the rear door is often jarred open and does not shut securely when let go. I am not surprised the resident manager has not reported this dangerous issue that effects resident health and safety. I have reported this door to you and code enforcement for over two years and many code violation complaints.
5. Owner supplied documents to the city government show that all units are supplied with parking and no tenant is paying extra for parking outside of the rent agreement. I am not sure about the guests who are using the units for illegal home sharing.
All rights reserved.
Geary J. Johnson
1522 Hi Point St 9
Los Angeles CA 90035
Phone ( )
I am a Black male tenant
Racists are well entrenched in Los Angeles government
LA Rent Control (RAC) and Permits (LADBS) 