(点击右边三个点，可调整速度，电脑上可下载)

听力参考原文 ↓↓↓

[00:02.04]More and more of Judy Branfman's friends and neighbors

[00:06.32]found themselves unable to afford housing in Venice Beach,

[00:10.48]a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

[00:14.16]So, Branfman began photographing the houses

[00:17.68]and apartments being sold, renovated,

[00:21.28]and then resold at two or three times the cost.

[00:26.36]Branfman thought she should be recording the growing problem

[00:30.04]of evictions and housing in Venice Beach.

[00:34.52]The writer and activist was disappointed that Venice

[00:38.40]is losing what made it an interesting,

[00:41.08]artistic neighborhood to her.

[00:44.60]Her photo project has gained some attention.

[00:48.24]Earlier this year, Branfman started hosting community meetings

[00:53.36]where residents could share their experiences with evictions

[00:57.52]that caused them to become homeless.

[01:01.00]Some people read poems.

[01:03.40]Others expressed themselves through paintings.

[01:07.96]They started gathering information on housing and evictions.

[01:13.08]Branfman's idea to take a few photos

[01:16.24]became an art exhibit

[01:18.16]called "Where Has All The (affordable) Housing Gone?"

[01:23.20]"The idea was to illustrate the problem,

[01:25.80]to show what we've lost," Branfman said.

[01:29.88]Venice Beach became a center of the homelessness crisis

[01:33.52]during the coronavirus pandemic in Los Angeles.

[01:37.96]The nation's second-largest city has an estimated

[01:42.32]46,000 people who are homeless

[01:45.08]in a population of 4 million people.

[01:49.48]Venice Beach has been popular for the arts for a long time.

[01:54.40]But people noticed the difference between rich and poor there

[01:58.04]as technology companies moved in

[02:00.52]and people started building costly, modern homes.

[02:05.32]The nonprofit group Angeleno Project

[02:08.72]said that about 80 percent of low-income Los Angeles renters

[02:14.20]pay over half their income toward housing costs.

[02:19.84]At Branfman's exhibit,

[02:21.84]her photos are displayed on a large and detailed map.

[02:26.76]The map shows many of the nearly 1,500

[02:31.16]rent-controlled homes she said have been lost

[02:34.68]from the housing market in Venice over 20 years.

[02:39.28]In some cases, the buildings were sold to large corporations

[02:43.60]that are buying up properties and increasing rents.

[02:48.16]The map and the exhibit

[02:49.96]say part of the problem is a law called the Ellis Act.

[02:54.72]The 1985 California law gave apartment owners power

[03:00.08]to evict tenants in rent-controlled buildings for redevelopment.

[03:05.72]Owners can then later require higher rents for the same apartments.

[03:11.16]"Rent-controlled" means that rents are limited by law.

[03:15.76]Branfman said she suffered because of the law

[03:18.84]when she was evicted from a Venice Beach apartment in 2003.

[03:24.56]"Too many tenants are afraid to fight back.

[03:27.52]And most don't know what their rights are under the law," she said.

[03:33.32]Even when tenants do bring complaints, she said,

[03:37.08]the city very rarely deals with the claims.

[03:41.40]Branfman and other housing activists

[03:43.96]are hopeful that change could come with a measure

[03:46.92]that will be voted on in 2024.

[03:50.60]The measure would expand local control

[03:53.56]by overturning a 28-year-old law

[03:56.60]that bans rent control on single-family homes,

[04:00.08]condominiums and rental properties

[04:02.52]that were built after 1995.

[04:06.44]I'm Jill Robbins.

_____________________

Words in This Story

afford –v. to be able to pay for something

renovate — v. to repair and improve a property

eviction — n. to be forced to leave a place, usually a place where you have lived

illustrate — v. to show something, often through pictures

income — n. money that is earned from work, business or investment

tenant –n. a person who pays a landowner to live or work on a property

complaint –n. a statement that you are unhappy about a situation and want something to be done about it