Each year, the Los Angeles housing department discovers 600 to 700 unapproved apartments. Above, this building on South Corinth Avenue was found to have bootleg apartments in 2008. It’s now under different management. (Gary Friedman, Los Angeles Times

Both tenants and landlords want to provide a way for non-conforming units to be made legal.  Homeowners typically oppose this due to the increased parking and density these additional unit would create.  In reality, densification of apartments fuels Los Angeles’ supply of affordable housing.  Families and roommates both add to the density and parking demand in Los Angeles but also decreases the per person cost of housing.  Tenants rent rooms in their rent controlled apartments to other tenants.  I knew someone who actually lived rent free by renting our the other two bedrooms in his rent controlled apartment.  Millennials starting out in the work world can afford to live in popular areas with roommates.

However, homeowners are pushing back.  In 2012, as part of a Solar Energy Facilitation Bill, the City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance that provided that any additional parking spaces maintained in connection with a building become required parking and cannot be removed unless the parking exceeds the current code.  Thus, if a owner created additional spaces over that required at the time of his building permit,  he can no longer use those spaces to legalize non-conforming units or otherwise increase the density on his parcel.  These changes are a push back on densification.

The article below provides an interesting discussion on the feudal plan in Los Angeles to legalize non-conforming units.

Landlords, tenants unite on amnesty plan for illegal apartments – LA Times.