Robin Urevich

As the Olympics Approach, Los Angeles Considers Crackdown on Illegal Vacation Rentals

City officials are proposing stricter enforcement, higher fines and new technology in part to prevent rent-controlled apartments from being listed on Airbnb and Booking.com, the subject of a Capital & Main and ProPublica investigation.

How LA’s Illegal Short-Term Rentals Hide in Plain Sight on Booking Sites

Los Angeles officials are struggling to crack down on illegal rentals during a housing crisis. Here’s how to make sure you’re a responsible vacationer.

In Los Angeles, Your Chic Vacation Rental May Be a Rent-Controlled Apartment

Amid an affordable housing crisis, dozens of rent-controlled buildings are listed on short-term rental websites. A 2018 law was supposed to stop that, but the city is struggling to enforce it.

Los Angeles Orders More Residential Hotels to Stop Renting to Tourists

Twenty-one hotels have been cited so far. If the citations are enforced and upheld in court, hundreds of rooms could be turned back into low-cost permanent housing for the city’s poorest residents.

Residential Hotels Got Contracts Under the Los Angeles Mayor’s Homelessness Program Despite Violations

A city law sought to prevent low-cost housing from turning into hotels, but some landlords rented to tourists anyway. That didn’t stop them from receiving city funds for a new temporary shelter program.

Los Angeles Mayor Orders Residential Hotels to Be Used for Temporary Homeless Housing

A 2008 city law intended hotels used as primary residences to be preserved as safety-net housing. But with little enforcement, some landlords had turned their buildings into tourist hotels.

LA Housing Department Proposes Increasing Residential Hotel Enforcement

Amid the city’s homelessness crisis, a Capital & Main and ProPublica investigation found, some landlords have turned buildings meant for low-cost housing into tourist hotels.

LA Housing Department Demands Residential Hotels Stop Renting Rooms to Tourists

After a Capital & Main and ProPublica investigation found that landlords were turning low-cost housing into tourist hotels, the city ordered some building owners to comply with the law.

How We Found What the City of Los Angeles Didn’t: Landlords Renting Low-Cost Housing to Tourists

Hotel ads, booking sites and guest reviews. Tourists staying in rooms meant for low-cost housing. Yet the city’s Housing Department has cited few landlords for violating the residential hotel law.

LA Promised to Preserve Low-Cost Housing. These Tenants’ Homes Were Turned Into Hotel Rooms Anyway.

When the American Hotel converted into a tourist hotel, its long-term residents lost not just their affordable housing but the creative community that long thrived in the iconic building.

Los Angeles Housing Department Will Investigate Residential Hotels

Following a Capital & Main and ProPublica investigation, which found that buildings meant for housing are instead being rented to tourists, the mayor’s office asked for a review.

Checked Out: How LA Failed to Stop Landlords From Turning Low-Cost Housing Into Tourist Hotels

Fifteen years ago Los Angeles passed a law to preserve residential hotels as housing of last resort. Now, amid the homelessness crisis, Capital & Main and ProPublica found some hotels may be violating that law by offering rooms to tourists.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica