LA Landlords Are Turning Tenants’ Parking Spaces Into New Apartments, And A Judge Halted One Project Converting 20 Spaces Into Nine Units While A 70 Year Old Renter Says Parking Is Her Freedom

Tracey Ellis can make the 20-foot walk from her apartment to her garage, but only with her cane. She is unsteady on her feet and in severe pain even after short walks, so the parking spot that comes with her lease is what gets her to doctor’s appointments and the grocery store.

An apartment building overlooks a parking lot filled with cars.

Then her landlord told the tenants that a new apartment would be built right over their garages. Parking would vanish for one to two years of construction, and possibly longer.

The Los Angeles Times reported the clash in a story on how landlords across the city are turning tenant parking into new housing. It is a fight that pits one kind of fairness against another.

“It’s My Freedom,” Says A 70 Year Old Renter Facing Two Years Without Her Parking Spot

Ellis is 70 and has lived in her eight-unit, rent-stabilized building near the Sunset Strip since 2001. Her reaction to the news was blunt.

“Parking in this city is a lifeline for people, and to take away their parking, why don’t you just take half my house or apartment?” she said. “It’s my freedom.”

She is not alone. A growing number of Los Angeles landlords are converting parking spaces and garages into accessory dwelling units, often called ADUs, which are small, separate homes built on an existing property. They are doing it under a new state law meant to ease California’s housing crisis.

“Almost Every Week” Another Tenant Shows Up At The Clinic

Tenant advocates say the conversions break leases and hit the most vulnerable hardest. That means seniors and people with disabilities who cannot compete for street parking, and people who cannot afford to move.

The clash seems sharpest in dense neighborhoods such as Koreatown, Pico Union, Silver Lake and Hollywood, where street parking is scarce and many buildings are rent-stabilized, according to attorneys tracking the issue.

“We’re seeing more and more people, almost every week, with this,” said Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, which runs tenant rights clinics. “Many people can’t continue to rent there without parking.”

“Los Angeles Doesn’t Have A Parking Shortage. It Has A Housing Shortage.”

Not everyone sees it that way. Matthew Lewis, communications director for the pro-housing group California YIMBY, which co-sponsored the 2024 state law, says the need for homes outweighs the need for parking.

“Is parking more important for Angelenos, or housing?” he asked. “Los Angeles doesn’t have a parking shortage. It has a housing shortage.”

Lewis said the city should help tenants with special needs who are affected, possibly through parking subsidies, more handicapped parking spots or better paratransit access.

City planning officials say they are “sympathetic to tenants” who may lose parking, but that the city must approve the ADU permits because it “cannot override state law.” They added that many tenants who lose parking would be eligible for a rent reduction and can request a new handicapped parking spot on their block.

A Judge Hit Pause On A Plan To Turn 20 Parking Spaces Into Nine Apartments

Some tenants have taken the fight to court. A lawsuit filed for low-income residents of a rent-stabilized Hollywood building challenges the city’s permits to convert 20 parking spaces into nine ADUs.

The tenants argue the city ignored their rights and caused an unlawful, one-sided change to their leases. They want the city to stop approving permits for construction on parking spaces that are in use and written into leases.

“Our position is you are evicting somebody from their rental unit,” said Sabrina Venskus, an attorney for the tenants. She points to the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, which defines parking as part of a rental unit. “Giving these tenants compensation is not sufficient,” she said.

The building owner’s attorney, Jacob H. Zadeh, sees it differently. He says turning parking into housing is the most practical and humane way for Los Angeles to meet its desperate need for homes, and that losing the parking does not amount to an eviction.

“I do feel sympathetic for the tenants losing parking,” Zadeh said. “But what is the other option, tearing down the whole building?” The owner, Lexi 26 Properities, is managed by Yousef Benpourat and is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

In May, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge halted construction of the ADUs until the case is fully argued. The city attorney’s office declined to comment on the litigation but has argued in court filings that tenant protections do not “prevent conversion of existing parking space into ADUs as mandated” by state law.

The State Law Behind The Squeeze Limits Replacement Parking

Building an ADU used to be harder because of zoning limits and rules requiring new parking. As the need for housing grew, state lawmakers loosened those rules, especially in urban areas.

The newest law, SB 1211, went into effect in January 2025. It lets more ADUs be built on certain multifamily lots, particularly using spaces not considered “liveable,” such as garages or storage units, and it restricts local agencies from requiring replacement parking when a space is lost to an ADU.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development said in a statement that “landlords and tenants should consult laws related to residential lease agreements.”

Many tenant advocates argue that cities are misreading SB 1211 and that the law is poorly written. In their view, only unused parking spaces should be eligible for ADU construction.

What Renters Can Do If Their Parking Is On The Line

Whether you rent in Los Angeles or anywhere else, this story carries a few practical lessons. None of this is legal advice, but it is a sensible place to start.

Pull out your lease and read how parking is described. If a space is listed as part of your rental, that language is the heart of the dispute in these cases.
Save every notice from your landlord, including messages sent through a portal or app, and note the dates.
If you have a disability or limited mobility, ask whether you can request an accessible parking spot near your home. Los Angeles planning officials say tenants can ask for one on their block.
Ask whether a rent reduction applies if parking is taken away. City officials say many affected tenants would be eligible.
Contact a local tenant rights clinic. Larry Gross’s group, the Coalition for Economic Survival, runs clinics for exactly these questions.

The bigger question has no easy answer, and reasonable people land on both sides. A city that badly needs homes is colliding with the older residents who rely on a driveway to get through the day, and for now a judge is holding the line on at least one building.

Willow and Hearth