Cambria Apartments

After the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, conditions in the Cambria Apartments deteriorated. The building was uninhabitable as it was kept in complete and perpetual disrepair. Tired of living in slum housing conditions a group of concerned tenants sought the assistance of Inquilinos Unidos (IU).

We immediately sprung into action and began organizing the tenants. As a result, the Cambria tenants took the landlord to court where despite being convicted on forty counts of building neglect, no repairs were made. The tenants then began a rent strike whereby the landlord responded by quickly abandoning the building. IU then made contact and partnered with city officials, the housing department, developers, legal and other community based organizations to assist tenants to navigate through the process of forming their own non-profit corporation, purchasing and then finally renovating the building.

In 1994, Comunidad Cambria was incorporated and by 1998—after a long and well-coordinated effort with the tenants, technical advisors, financial partners and government officials—tenants were successful in purchasing the building and were able to relocate back into their very own newly renovated home, one now managed by their own board.

The Cambria Apartment Complex still stands to this day and serves as a testament to what a group of individuals can accomplish when banding together to improve their living conditions while symbolizing the power that tenants have to create and preserve community.