🚨 LAPD is on track to hire more officers than the City budgeted and approved for.

What does this mean for the budget?

CASH FOR KEYS TENANT RIGHTS Tenants have a number of rights when presented with a "cash for keys" offer: The tenant is not required to accept or sign the Buyout Agreement. The tenant may consult with an attorney or call LAHD prior to accepting the landlord’s offer. The tenant may cancel the Buyout Agreement up to 30 days after signing it without obligation or penalty. If the owner does not comply with the requirements above, then the tenant has the right to cancel the Buyout Agreement for any reason at any time without obligation or penalty. If the owner does not comply with the requirements above, then the tenant may assert an affirmative defense to an Unlawful Detainer action and may have a private civil remedy against the owner.

Tenants have rights, including:
📄You're NOT required to sign a buyout
📄You can consult with a lawyer or LAHD
📄You can cancel a buyout agreement for up to 30 days
📄If the owner doesn't comply with the above, you can cancel a buyout agreement at any time

🤔☝️Cash for keys situations often involve rent-stabilized homes.

Landlords are willing to pay tenants to move out of rent-stabilized units — because once those units are vacated, landlords are allowed to re-rent the homes at significantly higher rents.

graphic with a background of heatmap showing locations where Cash for Keys agreements occurred. Text: CASH FOR KEYS AVG BUYOUT AMOUNT: $25,000. “Cash for Keys” or Tenant Buyout Agreement is when a landlord pays a tenant to move out of their rent controlled (RSO) unit. Once tenants move out, landlords can re-rent to new tenants at higher, market rate prices.

CASH💰 FOR KEYS🔑 UPDATE

From January 2019 to July 2025, there were 5,991 “cash for keys” (landlords paying tenants to move out) agreements filed with the Housing Department.

Average buyout amount: $25k per unit

Check out our map & analysis here: cashforkeys.lacontroller.app

A collage of headlines about the killings of Takar Smith, Oscar Leon Sanchez, Keenan Anderson at the hands of LAPD, And the text: New Report: On the Sideline: Assessing LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit and SMART Co-response Model. Read the report: bit.ly/lapdmeu

NEW ASSESSMENT: LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit We found that LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit (MEU) fails to prioritize mental health treatment & de-escalation. Instead, it prioritizes: - Relieving patrol units - Putting people in forced 72-hour detention Read the report: bit.ly/lapdmeu

Quote by Controller Mejia: “Currently, the primary response that exists for mental health emergencies is the LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit’s SMART teams. MEU’s own stated mission is to prevent unnecessary incarceration and hospitalization and reduce violence – however, my Office’s assessment of LAPD MEU found that LAPD does little to prove MEU or SMART accomplish any of this.

NEW 🚨

In January 2023, LAPD killed three people suffering mental health crises.

In response, our Office assessed the LAPD’s Mental Evaluation Unit (MEU) & found that LAPD requires a patrol-first, armed response in mental health calls for service.

Full report:
bit.ly/lapdmeu

How much should rent be allowed to increase each year?

City Council is currently debating this for rent-stabilized units (most homes built before Oct 1, 1978).

The Housing & Homelessness Committee COULD be voting on this NEXT WEEK.

Be sure to tell your councilmember what you think!

graphic of eviction notices heatmap with green and white text overlaid: Top 5 Zip Codes (Most Eviction Notices) 1. 90028 - Hollywood, 2. 90015 - Downtown LA, South Park, 3. 90012 - Downtown LA, Chinatown, 4. 90017 - Westlake, 5. 91367 - Woodland Hills. Kenneth Mejia logo, map & analysis: evictions.lacontroller.app

Top 5 zip codes with the most eviction notices from Jan - Sept 2025:

90028 (Hollywood): 3,472 notices
90015 (DTLA, South Park): 3,109
90012 (DTLA, Chinatown): 2,667
90017 (Westlake): 2,318
91367 (Woodland Hills): 2,241

📍 evictions.lacontroller.app

graphic of eviction notices heatmap with green text overlaid: 59,824 eviction notices issued in LA from Jan 2025 - Sept 2025. 91% issued for non-payment of rent. Kenneth Mejia logo, map & analysis: evictions.lacontroller.app

EVICTIONS UPDATE 🚨

For the first 9 months of 2025, over 54,000 households throughout LA received eviction notices because they were unable to pay rent.

See our updated eviction notices map and analysis at 📍 evictions.lacontroller.app

You all asked for it, so we're here to bring you that FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY! 💰🔍

Watch this quick three minute video on HOW TO USE our homelessness dashboard and also hear about some of the difficulties we're facing keeping this updated.

Visit homelessdashboard.lacontroller.app

The City of LA spent MILLIONS to avoid transparency and accountability by my Office and is going to do it again to have an outside monitor keep an eye on the city's homelessness spending and efforts! 🤯

BTW 🔎 Check out our homelessness dashboard at homelessdashboard.lacontroller.app

Being City Controller comes with inherent difficulties. This is why WE NEED Charter Reform‼️

Visit bit.ly/lacontroller-charter to read our Charter Reform recommendations AND also join the virtual meeting for the upcoming September 29 Charter Reform Commission meeting at 5pm.

A screenshot from the LA Times article headline that says “Supreme Court upholds ‘roving patrols’ for immigration stops in Los Angeles. Below the text is a photo of masked men in Border patrol facing the camera and walking

Today is a dark day for LA.

The Supreme Court ruled that ICE is allowed to racially profile people. Even when this was ruled illegal in July, ICE continued indiscriminate raids in LA.

We fear more kidnappings of Angelenos by the federal government.

Do you think the City will be in another budget deficit this fiscal year? 🤔

With the start of fiscal year, we are tracking to see if the City is going to be in a third year of consecutive budget deficits.

With city departments & services getting cut, let's see what happens.

An image of the LA Times front page with the headline, “One dead, 40 hurt in East LA riot. Times columnist Ruben Salazar killed by bullet”

On this day 55 years ago in 1970, more than 20,000 people, mostly Chicanos, marched through East LA to protest the Vietnam War, systemic racism, police brutality & the disproportionate number of Mexican American soldiers dying overseas.

It was called the Chicano Moratorium.

My lil half frame putting in werk

YES on the Livable Communities Initiative could mean:
🏡 More mixed-income 🏘️ in commercial areas
🚲 Better 🚲 & 🚶‍♀️ infrastructure
🌳 Expand🌳canopies & outdoor public spaces
🚏 Prioritize transit-rich corridors

🚨MAJOR HOUSING VOTE TODAY (2/25) 

TODAY AT 2PM, City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) committee is voting on The Livable Communities Initiative, which could bring MORE housing, BETTER sidewalks, and SAFER streets to LA. 🏘️🚶‍♀️🚲

Agenda: lacity.primegov.com/Portal/Meeti...

!!!! HAPPENING TODAY !!!

Facing need for more housing, LA's City Council votes to keep new apartments away from homeowners The city needs to rezone for more than a quarter-million new homes. Elected leaders decided to block new housing in single-family neighborhoods.

"Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" remains the official policy of a Los Angeles run by a group of people who identify as progressives. laist.com/news/housing...

Nothing pisses me off more than reading a CA suburban city's zoning code.

Most of these appear to purposefully be designed to make it impossible to build anything in multifamily zones

What do you mean your "R4" zone only allows one unit per 1,740 sq ft of land area??

Los Angeles Single-Family/Multi-Family Zoning Map Community Plan Area (CPA) map of the Los Angeles region.

We believe it’s time to build affordable housing in high resource neighborhoods that have historically blocked it.

Check out our map of single-family vs. multi-family zones to see how this vote will affect your neighborhood:

single-family-zoning.lacontroller.app

Screenshot of letter to City Council. Read at bit.ly/lacontroller-chip

Screenshot of letter to City Council. Read at bit.ly/lacontroller-chip

🚨TOMORROW: City Council will vote on where new affordable housing can be built. For too long, affordable housing has been restricted to the same multi-family areas.

We must allow more housing where there is the highest demand & least impact to vulnerable tenants.
drive.google.com/file/d/11Ex4...

I wonder why Austin landlords suddenly became a lot less greedy.

some of y'all are attracted to leftism because you want to punish capitalists, not because of socialism's potential to free humanity from drudgery, and it shows.