TL;DR - Our small six unit building has been taken over by an illegal hostel. Yes, you read that correctly - 1416 N. Martel Ave, Apt #4 has a revolving door with as many as 25 different people each night packed into multiple triple-decker bunk beds during a global pandemic. Each week 175 maskless travelers and transients, defecate in our stairwell, cough and smoke spreading germs, and fuel their parties with alcohol and drug sales. The health & safety of your neighborhood depends on your action today. Sign Now!

WHAT’S HAPPENING: Since April, the lessee for Apt #4, who does NOT live here himself, has been using Booking.com and other short-term rental sites to book “guests”. After we successfully removed the original ad on Booking, he simply re-listed under a different address and started to have the new “guests” meet him on N. Martel. From there he escorts them up to the filthy, overcrowded CO-ED quarters. They pay cash and there are no background checks. None of this is legal under Ordinance 185931 - which prevents short-term rental abuse.

Each new “guest” adds a dangerous element to an already volatile environment. By this point you have probably noticed the police making more regular visits to our normally quiet complex. These calls go beyond “guests” doing drugs in the carport or washing themselves in the laundry room sink. When they smoke directly outside our units - we still breathe it. When they blast music - it echoes through the complex. When they go in and out at 3am and slam the door behind them - we feel it shake the entire building. When they urinate and defecate in the stairwells - we have to walk through it. Remember, COVID has been discovered in feces as well.

WHY SHOULD I CARE:  These “guests” are now wandering the neighborhood and jumping over walls onto your property.  We have seen it ourselves. This type of short-term rental abuse destroys neighborhoods. Ordinance 185931 protects neighborhoods like ours from an infestation of rental abuse but only if people care enough to be outraged and act. Violations like these dramatically bring down quality of life, plummet property value, and spike crime rates. Something we are experiencing here first hand. 

Neither the property management, Ingenious Asset Group, nor the owner share our urgency in shutting down the illegal hostel. They have known about this situation from day one and have provided only lip-service. Since they have shirked their responsibilities it can only be concluded that they are incompetent or complicit. Either way it is nothing short of criminal. 

HOW CAN I HELP: Help us wake up Mayor Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer to what we have been enduring for the past five months. We have hit a wall of bureaucracy and red tape. Each agency we contact tells us we need to speak to yet another agency to get the ball rolling. It is on us, together, to restore our peaceful neighborhood before it is overrun with chaos and criminality.

With cases spiking in L.A. we are destined to become our very own COVID “hotspot”. It is environments like these that cause our ICUs to be overburdened and police to be called away from violent crimes. We have seen bars, restaurants, gym, beaches, and parties all shut down at some point but this is just as dangerous as any of them. Share our urgency! 

Now is the time to demand the city evict Apt #4 and have the sheriff lock them out. Even with the eviction moratorium there is clear enough language in Ordinance 185931 to end the illegal hostel even without an eviction. With the courts being backed up this petition can end the revolving door and bring peace to our building and neighborhood. Our countless photos, videos, audio recordings, emails, records of calls, etc. substantiate our claim. The evidence we have is as clear as it is overwhelming.

If the quality of your neighborhood matters to you: SIGN. If your health and safety matter to you: SIGN. Fed up with government inaction: SIGN. If you believe you deserve a better neighborhood than what you have been paying for: SIGN. If you just want a decent night's sleep without constant partying, fighting, drug sales, loud music, public defecation, and cops coming at all hours: SIGN NOW!