Martin P.

October 2017

After six years of dealing with rats, roaches, peeling paint, and decaying pipes, Martin Parker, his wife, and three young children were given a 60-day no-cause eviction notice, forcing the family to move out. Asked what he’d miss most about living here, Martin said:

“My community friends that would come out to my barbeque. They’ll come out and be like, ‘Ey you barbequing? Can I put something on the grill?’ Yup, come on. We’re going to make it a community thing. Yes, I will block off the alley. Yeah, I don’t give a fuck about the police. It’s a community thing. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian. Whatever you was you come over here and eat at my barbeque. Bring something though.”

DeSean A.

March 2017

“I love my city, you know. I love it to death. But hey, Long Beach is changing, man. Back in the day I used to stay on Bermuda [Street] and Junipero [Avenue] with my mom and my brother. Man, those were the greatest times right there. Rent was cheap. It wasn’t so crazy as it is now. The park was right down the street. And it was just amazing. I went to school right down the street, at Burbank Elementary. We moved all around Long Beach. The prices really didn’t get crazy until the past three or four years,” DeSean said. 

After nine years in his Pine Avenue apartment, DeSean, along with his wife and two children, were evicted and ended up moving to Bellflower.

Ronald J.

July 2017

A few weeks after his rent was increased from $725 to $1,295, Ronald, a full-time custodian and landscaper at various upscale downtown apartment buildings (an irony that was not lost on him), was sleeping in a motel. When that became too expensive, he slept in his work van alongside two aquariums, which housed his beloved goldfish.

“Everybody I know is gone. Our street was all low-income when I first moved here in 2007. From here all the way to Anaheim Street—they’re all gone because they can’t afford the rent,” said Ronald, who at the time had lived in Long Beach for 11 years.

Stacy S. and Sharon T.

March 2019

Sharon and Stacy, both 52 and disabled, were forced to sleep on the street and at various rundown motels after their apartment building was sold to a developer and demolished to make way for an upscale residential complex, which to this day has yet to break ground.

“Too many people lose their homes. And there ain't nothing out there to help them. And we get treated like we're garbage," said Stacy. "And yet [the property owners] get to sit back and eat their dinners and have steak and all this other stuff. What the heck do we get? We get to eat hot dogs. Top Ramen, bologna. I mean, come on. I want a steak every now and then. I really do. I want a nice steak with a baked potato. I mean it really upsets me because they put people in that position.”

Christina S.

May 2017

“Everybody left,” Christina said. “It’s like your hometown pushing you out. An older lady had lived at the Lime building for 30 years. When she and her husband got married it was their first apartment.”

Every tenant at this large multi-family building, including Christina, a single mother and full-time manager at a Walmart, was served with an eviction.

She recalled one of her neighbors ended up moving to Oregon and another fell ill and died a few weeks after being evicted. By her telling, an entire community was decimated within a matter of weeks.

Lori E.

August 2018

Tenants were pushed out of this 51-unit senior apartment building after rents were sharply raised, some by as much as $450. Lori, bound to a wheelchair, saw her rent balloon from $853 to $1100.

“I love this city. I came here with my kids and I raised them here. I came here because it was the most diverse city I’d ever seen. And now they’re just separating us once again,” she said. “Low-income [people] are mostly people of color, so you’re saying we’re going back to the way it was. We’re only going to have wealthy and white people here?”

Maritza S.

July 2017

In her four years living at this apartment before being evicted, Maritza counted catching 28 rats yet said the landlord only ever came around to increase and collect rent. She says he was unresponsive to complaints about habitability issues, which also included a water boiler dangerously located next to the stove, a severe bed bug infestation, and roaches galore. The bed bug infestation was so bad, in fact, that Maritza had to take one of her daughters to the emergency room when one of the blood-sucking insects burrowed into her leg.

Maritza, a Honduran immigrant and single mother of foster children, said she was dreading having to uproot her girls from their schools and move away. During her time here, she said the apartment building saw a revolving door of desperate low-income tenants who would be evicted and lose their deposits after complaining about the living conditions.

“For us tenants, who are paying the rent, there are only problems,” Maritza said in Spanish. “But for the men who own these apartment buildings, they go laughing to the bank while the tenants are kicked out to the street.”

Sherman B.

September 2016

After this apartment building was sold, every tenant, including Sherman, an LBCC employee who had spent nine years here, was given a 60-day notice to vacate. He said moving out set him back close to $2,000. A few months into his residence at a new apartment in the East Village, that building was also sold and at the time he feared that he’d again be evicted. This time around, he said, he’d be hard-pressed to afford moving costs. Asked whether he’d stay in Long Beach if he was forced out again, he said:

“I would and I wouldn't. The reason why I would: I like this area very much. I’ve been in this area 12 years and I am an employee at Long Beach Community College. I’ve been employed there nine and a half years. And it’s very convenient for me to get to work from this area. And I wouldn’t want to leave that. The other 50% of me would like to leave Long Beach because all this is going on right now. I don’t want to move into these units and they continue to do this. As soon as you move in, it gets sold. I don’t want the stress. I really do not.”

Patrick H.

April 2017

After a stint of homelessness, Patrick moved into this subsidized apartment unit through the Section 8 program and lived here for over three years while on a fixed income. After repeated rent increases his monthly payment went from $250 to $353, eventually causing him to fall behind. This led to an eviction and he found himself homeless once again.

“I don’t eat as well. I don’t cook. I don’t have a stove. I’m down like 15 pounds than what I normally would be," he said. "I’m getting injuries. I’m falling asleep at bus stops and hitting my head. When you're on the street, you don’t want to fall asleep. So you stay awake as long as you can. But then you pass out on a bench like I did and boom. Anything can happen to you when you go to sleep. That’s the perfect time to get you. I got my phone stolen because I fell asleep. It's not healthy, it’s not good for no one. I’m frightened.”

Consuelo Q.

September 2016

Consuelo, 71, had lived most of her life in Long Beach, immigrating from Mexico in 1968. She was evicted from the home she had lived in for 42 years. She suspected the landlord, who had just purchased the building, kicked her out as retaliation for Consuelo telling prospective renters who had come to see an apartment in her building about a recent shooting in the neighborhood.

“It’s affected me a lot. I got sick and was in the hospital. I just barely got a little better but I haven’t fully recovered,” she said in Spanish through tears. “My kids all grew up here and now I have to leave.”

Cassandra H. and Peter G.

March 2017

Tenants here spent 75 days without gas due to deteriorated pipes and had a litany of other habitability complaints ranging from squatters accessing shared spaces to rats and fire code violations. After raising the issues with the landlord, Cassandra was given a $295 rent increase and a 60-day eviction notice, which she believed was retaliatory. Peter, who had lived in the building for six years, was given a $200 rent increase.

“Put yourself in our shoes," said Peter. "You go to work every day and make ends meet. The last thing you want is to come home to nonsense like this. And to feel you’re not being taken seriously."