Victories

Since our inception in 1999, LA CAN has achieved countless victories through empowering extremely low-income residents, developing leadership amongst our base, and organizing successful campaigns yield concrete results. Housing Rights, Women’s Rights, Community Health, Civil Rights – LA CAN has netted wins in all of these areas and, along the way, has changed the way decisions are made in Downtown and South LA. Below you will find just a small sample of some of our major victories.

HOUSING RIGHTS

  • The preservation of 15,000 homes for LA’s lowest income tenants throughout the City
  • Reversing a unanimously-passed redevelopment plan, preventing displacement for almost 9,000 low-income households in the heart of gentrifying downtown
  • A “no net loss” policy for all affordable housing in the downtown redevelopment plan, which resulted in increased funding for extremely low-income housing, local hiring obligations, and strengthened tenant rights requirements
  • Significantly improved health and safety conditions in more than 2,000 homes previously in slum conditions
  • Elimination of the guest fee practices in more than 5,000 homes, saving tenants from an unjust charge just to have family, friends and caregivers visit
  • Community-lawyering projects that resulted in $3 million going directly to low-income people in compensation for illegal actions and establishing the right to return for more than 500 illegally displaced tenants

Click HERE to view and download a timeline of LA CAN’s Housing work and Victories.

CIVIL RIGHTS

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  • Educating thousands of residents about their rights through teach-ins, workshops, one-on-one outreach and other efforts
  • Launching the first and longest-sustained police monitoring program in LA, CommunityWatch, which created a check and balance system for the power dynamics between residents and private security/police
  • Creating a culture of resistance against civil and human rights abuses in our communities
  • Helping dozens of individuals win civil and criminal court battles who otherwise would have been wrongfully prosecuted and/or had their rights violated
  • Collecting documentation and evidence leading to several court injunctions against LAPD, preventing them the pattern and practice of illegal stops, illegal searches and illegally confiscating property
  • Reducing the ticketing rates in Skid Row by almost 50% and providing citation defense for thousands of residents.