LOS ANGELES — Families living on 920 Everett Street in Los Angeles are overstaying their eviction notice of April 13. They all have different reasons for doing so, but a common thread among them is not being able to afford to move. 

Dieu Pham is a longtime tenant. She lives in one of the units with her daughter and two grandchildren. Pham is in her 70’s.

She says her two grandchildren are out of school due to the threat of COVID-19. Her daughter is a nail technician and has been staying home for weeks due to the Safer at Home emergency order. Her line of work is considered non-essential by the government. 

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Pham says her family lives paycheck to paycheck and they do their best to pay rent every month. In September, Spectrum News 1 first learned about Pham. She and her neighbors in the building were facing an eviction after the longtime owners of the building decided they wanted to sell it.

 

 

 

Pham and her neighbors banded together and worked with housing advocates at Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED). They protested and won.

The landlord sold the building to a company and the tenants stayed in their homes.

Despite the brief win, Pham says her gut told her that it wasn’t. The new landlord company sold the building to a different company called VF Developments, which is based in Costa Mesa.

According to the company’s website, VF Development specializes in acquiring, renovating, and managing multifamily properties in Los Angeles and Orange County. The company targets “under-performing and mismanaged properties.” VF Developments issued an eviction notice and demanded that residents vacate by April 13, 2020. 

“How can anyone have the heart to kick them out during this time? If their roles were reversed, I wouldn’t do this to them or anyone,” said Dieu Pham, in Vietnamese.

Pham says she submitted a check for the month of April, but it was returned to her. She is planning to send another check for May.

Since the pandemic, the governor and Mayor of Los Angeles have announced moratoriums evictions. The company can legally go through with its eviction plan since moratorium on evictions weren’t created to protect all residents during the pandemic. It only protects people who are affected by COVID-19 who can show proof like medical bills or termination notices. 

We reached out to Victoria Vu, VF Developments and their attorney at the Law Office of Hollenbeck and Cardoso, LLP for comment.

They all declined.

In an email from Linda Hollenbeck, she wrote:

"My client also will not be providing any comment on this project, or any other project, property, or topic at this time. That also goes for anyone else associated with this project or property from the owner/management/landlords position." 

The Vietnamese grandmother says she is worried about the eviction, but she’s also afraid of contracting the coronavirus due to her age and health. She hasn’t been able to sleep well at night and says she often wakes up because she’s afraid someone will barge in to force her family out of their home.

Pham says she can’t risk her life by going out to find a new place to live nor is she able to afford higher rent and a deposit.

“We survive month to month. What we make in one month is what we have to spend for that month. We aren’t big business people with big incomes,” says Pham.

According to Pham, her neighbors are all staying past the April 13th eviction notice. They are working with an attorney and housing advocates to figure out what their options are.

For more information about Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED), please visit: facebook.com/ccedla