My profiles and features detail trends, history and sometimes quirky aspects of living in California.
After 13 years, a homeless Angeleno broke into her old, vacant home and wants to stay forever
Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2024
The best moments in Maria Merritt’s life happened in a small two-bedroom cottage she rented in Los Angeles’ El Sereno neighborhood from the California Department of Transportation. She passed her U.S. citizenship exam, received numerous promotions at work and grilled carne asada on Sundays for her four children. But then after a tragedy involving her youngest child, Merritt fell into drug addiction, mental illness and lost the home. She lived on and off the streets for the next 13 years while her old house remained vacant.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Merritt along with a dozen others broke into empty, publicly owned homes in El Sereno, with Merritt deciding to seize her former cottage. There, she came across old family photos she’d left behind and eventually found stability staying in her home. After more than four years back in El Sereno, Merritt vacillates between despair at the prospect of her eviction and elation when she dreams of buying her home.
This story unsparingly examines one woman’s difficult life, her attachment to a house and the lengths she was willing to go to return after many years away.
Story: After 13 years, a homeless Angeleno broke into her old, vacant home and wants to stay forever
Tracking California’s push for more affordable housing in wealthy, exclusive communities
Los Angeles Times, October 2022 to present
In recent years, new California laws have pushed some of the richest, most exclusive and famous cities in the country, including Beverly Hills, Coronado and Santa Monica, to allow more affordable housing. My ongoing coverage has detailed what’s happening in these communities, the pushback and the effects of these changes.
Stories: Thousands of apartments may come to Santa Monica, other wealthy cities under little-known law; This exclusive island town might be California’s biggest violator of affordable housing law; This L.A. developer aims to tear down homes to build apartments where the city doesn’t want them; Wealthy Coronado agrees to support more affordable housing after state pressure and In Beverly Hills, no kitchen remodels or pool grottoes as judge orders building moratorium over lack of affordable housing
Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery
Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2022
People moving to Los Angeles face a strange phenomenon when looking for an apartment to rent: They need to buy a refrigerator. Through anecdote and data this story describes one of the most idiosyncratic aspects of the L.A. rental market.
Story: Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery
Podcast:
A dark side to the California dream: How the state Constitution makes affordable housing hard to build
Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2019
California is the only state in the country to block the construction of affordable housing in its constitution. This story detailed the history of a little-known nearly 70-year-old constitutional provision that had a dramatic effect on the building of homes for poor people for decades. The piece examines the racist and classist origins of the provision as well as its far-reaching impact. After the constitutional provision was challenged on equal protection grounds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in its favor, which had the effect of allowing government policies nationwide that discriminate against poor people.