Larry Gross Reflects on Five Decades of Tenant Organizing in Los Angeles
By Courtney Cooperman, NLIHC
This article is adapted from an interview with Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival.
The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) is a grassroots community-based organization that organizes tenants in the greater Los Angeles area and empowers them to impact the decision-making processes that affect their day-to-day lives. Since its establishment in 1973, CES has “had a hand in most of the laws that protect tenants in the city of Los Angeles,” as founder and executive director Larry Gross explains. CES has led the effort to bring rent stabilization to Los Angeles and West Hollywood, organized tenant associations, worked to preserve HUD-subsidized and government-assisted housing, and helped tenants purchase their buildings to keep them permanently affordable.
In the 1970s, Los Angeles faced exorbitant rent increases. CES started organizing tenants and successfully advocated for the City of Los Angeles and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County to adopt rent stabilization laws. However, after a party change in the county’s Board of Supervisors in the early 1980s, the county rolled back these laws. CES and its allies put forth a ballot initiative to permanently establish rent stabilization in Los Angeles County. The initiative did not pass but received an overwhelming majority of support in West Hollywood, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County. CES’s organizing led to the incorporation of West Hollywood, with an elected City Council that immediately approved a rent stabilization ordinance. The incorporation of West Hollywood as the first-ever “city built on rent control” is one of the proudest moments of Gross’s career, but CES’s impressive track record makes it impossible to choose just one. “The most invigorating and joyous thing that I see – because there’s a lot of hills and valleys – is seeing a tenant recognize their power and realizing that they have the capabilities to make change,” said Gross.
Throughout Gross’s five decades of tenant organizing, the housing crisis has only intensified. “Back then, when people were being priced out of their homes or evicted, they […] could find other housing. Today, it’s impossible. If you’re evicted […] you’re likely to be pushed out of your community […] So that’s particularly hard for disabled people, for seniors, for people with children […] Your whole social network of friends and services, doctors, pharmacies […] are totally lost because you’re pushed out.”
In the face of an accelerating crisis, Gross has seen the tenant movement expand significantly as more organizations step into tenants’ rights issues. He highlighted the conversion of affordable homes into luxury units, the demolition of rent-controlled units, and the failure of government to address these problems as causes of housing unaffordability. Gross emphasized the need to “preserve and protect our existing affordable housing, as well as committing to build more affordable housing.”
When asked what advice he would give to a tenant organizer new to the movement, Gross responded, “Recognize this as being a marathon, and not a sprint. It takes a lot of work to build a base, give tenants confidence, and win their trust. Solutions aren’t going to happen overnight, and you have to be prepared for the lows to get to the highs. It takes a lot of work, a lot of determination and commitment, and you can’t give up. You’ve just got to keep fighting and organizing and growing.” He also emphasized the importance of trusting and empowering people with lived experience: “Your best advice and ability to understand situations and solutions come from the people who are directly impacted. Relying on and ensuring tenant leadership is key to success.”