Eminent domain was used to evict a Chinatown family. Now it might help them stay housed

LOS ANGELES -- In 1988, eminent domain forced Rosario Hernandez and her family from their one-bedroom apartment east of downtown Los Angeles.

It's a rarely used legal tool for cities to compel the sale of private property for a public use and has historically displaced poor, Black and immigrant communities. Back then, the "public use" was a 30-acre expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center, and dozens of residential properties were condemned along with Hernandez's.

Now, eminent domain could actually help keep Hernandez housed.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in 2021 to explore the use of eminent domain to acquire Hillside Villa, a 124-unit apartment complex in Chinatown where she has lived for 30 years with her husband, daughter and now grandson. Her apartment building's affordability covenant kept rents low until it expired in 2018. Then came rent hikes and eviction notices.

Now the Hillside Villa, an olive green and red painted four-story complex with a landscaped central courtyard and a small front yard shaded by mature trees — and keep it affordable. If the effort fails, Hernandez worries she'll be separated from her family.