Los Angeles-area landlords appear determined not to let a disaster go to waste, with tenant rights organizations and displaced people searching for shelter reporting that the prices for apartment rentals and hotels have increased by as much as 100 percent since wildfires engulfed sections of the city.
Because California is in a state of emergency, laws targeting price-gouging, including a ban on landlords raising rents by more than 10 percent of pre-emergency levels, should be in effect. But that hasn't deterred some landlords from apparently raising their rents by far more than that, creating bidding wars — which potentially allows them to "accept" an offer higher than the state-mandated limit — and leading activists to accuse them of callously exploiting displaced survivors who have lost almost everything to the fires.
