Pasadena Tenants Call Out CalTech Over Evictions

Dozens of tenants at a Pasadena apartment building gathered this week to protest and hold a press conference over their possible eviction by CalTech.

“CalTech’s heartless equation: evicting seniors & families,” one tenant’s banner read.

The tenants live in a 21-unit building at 400 South Mentor Avenue, a few blocks west of the university’s campus, and received eviction notices in early June, the Southern California News Group reported, shortly after the school bought the building with an eye to expanding its student housing capacity.

The notices said the school wanted the building’s residents out by early September so it could perform construction work. In response, the tenants began organizing and later brought a petition to the school’s president. School officials then indicated they will be “neighborly” with residents and promised to hold discussions.

“We would like to ensure that we can make this a smooth transition for all involved,” a university representative said in a statement, “and welcome the opportunity to work together to make that possible.”

The tenants, however, want a formal commitment to rescind the eviction notices, which mandated they leave by the end of September.

The Pasadena spat comes weeks after tenants in West L.A. brought another lawsuit against Douglas Emmett over the firm’s evictions at Barrington Plaza, where the firm has said it needs to kick out hundreds of tenants living in affordable apartments in order to install new sprinkler systems.

The CalTech eviction situation also arrives as The Pasadena Rental Housing Board, a new regulatory agency, is launching after voters approved a measure to authorize rent control and the formation of the board.

Evictions related to tenants’ nonpayment are also likely to pick up after the recent end of yearslong COVID-era protections. At the end of January, the City of L.A.’s broad eviction moratorium expired, allowing landlords to once again begin filing cases against tenants who had claimed financial hardship because of the pandemic, although the city also passed new permanent tenant protections.

L.A. County’s broad moratorium expired on April 1, ending one of the country’s last remaining pandemic-era eviction laws.

— Trevor Bach