Santa Monica:
Five days after hell destroyed the Pacific Palisades, Maya Lieberman was desperately looking for a place to live. However, difficulties are arising due to unscrupulous landlords who are jacking up prices.
“Price gouging is a mess and it’s despicable,” the 50-year-old stylist told AFP. “We can’t find a place to go.”
A massive fire has been raging through Los Angeles since Tuesday, consuming entire neighborhoods and reducing large swaths of the city to ash. More than 150,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes as authorities try to bring down the death toll, which has already reached 16.
A fire devastated Pacific Palisades, an upscale residential area where celebrities such as Billy Crystal and Kate Beckinsale lived. Until this week, it was one of the most desirable real estate properties in the United States.
Read: Los Angeles residents asked to stay indoors to avoid toxic smoke from wildfires
A mandatory evacuation order is currently in place for the area, and those who survived the inferno in their homes will have to seek shelter elsewhere for the time being.
The higher-than-average incomes of those displaced there appear to be tempting to politicians who see an opportunity to make money from the misery of others.
“We applied for a house that was listed at $17,000 a month, but we were told we wouldn’t get it unless we paid $30,000,” Lieberman said.
“They told me they had people ready to offer more and pay in cash. It’s absolutely insane.”
illegal
Stories of similar apparent price gouging abound.
“I have a friend who booked a hotel in a Los Angeles suburb, but when he arrived, he was charged a higher rate,” said Alex Smith, a television producer who was forced to leave his home.
The harsh practice has angered California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who warned on Saturday that there is a law to crack down on it.
“Price gouging is illegal. We will not tolerate it. We will hold people accountable. We will prosecute,” he told reporters, adding that those found guilty could face up to a year in prison. .
Once a state of emergency is declared, as in the case of an out-of-control fire, sellers cannot increase prices by more than 10%.
Read: LA wildfires become the costliest disaster in the US, with losses reaching $135 billion
This applies not only to small and medium-sized businesses, but also to large enterprises, where automated tools use supply and demand to set costs for everything from hotel stays to concert tickets.
“If these algorithms cause prices to rise by more than 10% after the state of emergency was declared than before, it would be a violation of the law,” he said.
“We need to find a way to adjust prices according to the law. And if that means moving away from algorithms, then moving away from algorithms.”
For Brian, a retiree who has been sleeping in his car since the evacuation order was issued, short-term rules to prevent price gouging mean little.
The 69-year-old, who did not want to give his full name, has lived in a rent-controlled studio apartment in the Pacific Palisades for 20 years.
That’s now gone, and so is the guarantee that the rent won’t go up.
He worries his pension won’t be far off in a city where rents have doubled in the past decade. The problem is likely to be exacerbated by the sudden influx of people needing new places to live.
“I’m back in the market with tens of thousands of other people,” he said.
“That doesn’t bode well.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
