“The home is the center of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menace of the streets.
We say that at home, we can ‘be ourselves.’ Everywhere else, we are someone else. At home, we remove our masks.”
From Matthew Desmond’s 2016 book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
In their mid-pandemic search for a three-bedroom home, Denise and Greg Townsend found rental listings for three apartments that appealed to them. Located in their longtime community of Santa Monica, all three apartments featured rents low enough so that the math penciled out with the Townsends’ budget and Section 8 housing voucher.
Santa Monica Landlords Charged with Price Gouging
Feb. 06, 2021 at 6:00 am
The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office has filed a criminal complaint against local landlords accused of unlawfully raising a tenant’s rent by more than is allowed during the pandemic.
The criminal complaint levies three counts of price gouging against the owners of the local multi-unit apartment building located at 1433 Euclid Street in Santa Monica, City officials said in a news release Friday. “The landlords WS Communities, LLC and 1433 Euclid Street, LLC, are charged with unlawfully raising a tenant’s rent by more than the allowed 10 percent during a declared emergency.”
Meal delivery service settles consumer protection lawsuit [Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.]
Jan. 20 SANTA CRUZ A coalition of prosecutors, including Santa Cruz County’s, has scored a $450,000 settlement from online prepared meal-delivery service Home Chef in a recent consumer protection lawsuit.
The Chicago-based company has agreed to change its websites and sales practices after the suit was brought by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney Consumer and Environmental Affairs Unit working in conjunction with the California Auto-Renewal Taskforce in Los Angeles.
At issue in the case is the alleged lack of clear disclosure of the business’ automatic renewal terms and conditions, before charging customers for the service. Such disclosures must include instruction for the cancelation of the automatic renewal subscription. The law requires businesses to obtain consent from customers prior to automatic renewal and provide confirmation of the transaction. Home Chef is the latest in a
Briefs
LOS ANGELES
Murder suspect mistakenly released from custody
A murder suspect was mistakenly released from custody in Southern California Tuesday afternoon and remained at large, authorities said.
Steven Manzo, 23, was charged with fatally shooting a man in Long Beach in 2018. Manzo was arrested a year ago and had been incarcerated since then.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office informed Long Beach police that Manzo had been released from custody. Officers were unable to locate him.
“Upon further review, it was determined he should not have been released,” Long Beach police said in a statement Wednesday.
Year in Review Part 4: October
Dec. 30, 2020 at 6:00 am
Local street performers were banned from entertaining tourists visiting Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, Pier and Transit Mall during peak afternoon and evening shopping hours, as part of the city’s Twenty-Seventh Supplement. While the recent safer-at-home orders had affected the number of acts performing in recent months, performers had found ways to continue with a few creative adaptations.
California eased its coronavirus restrictions to allow up to three households to socialize outdoors, an expansion of rules aimed at people tempted to have even larger gatherings around Halloween, Thanksgiving and end-of-year holidays. The goal was not to encourage larger gatherings, Newsom said, but to recognize the increasing pressure for get-togethers and provide ways for people to act appropriately.