Feds urged to reject plan to sell troubled Chinatown building for low-income seniors

Exterior of the 38-year-old Cathay Manor Apartments building in Chinatown. Residents and advocates marched Thursday morning about half a mile from Cathay Manor to HUD’s L.A. field office to protest the proposed sale of the building and rent increase. “We’re saying to HUD that you’ve got to do your due diligence.” Exterior of the Cathay Manor Apartments building in Chinatown in Los Angeles. Hom, the head of Cathay Manor’s tenant association, said in an interview just outside the door to his apartment, “I have been living here for so many years and they have gotten so many funds and nothing has gotten better.” Ne Hung Hom, the 86-year-old head of Cathay Manor’s tenant association, said in an interview just outside the door to his ninth-floor apartment that Barker Management, which cares for the property, doesn’t “care about elderly people or helping us.” “I have been living here for so many years and they have gotten so many funds and nothing has gotten better,” he said. “They have no qualifications for raising the rent because the building is in such bad repair.” Asked about such concerns, Kelly said, “Lutheran Gardens has no intention of converting Cathay Manor to luxury units” and that “the plan is to maintain the affordability of the property as it has been.” The nonprofit, he said, intends to sign an agreement to keep the property’s units affordable for decades, adding that “the working number right now” for when the agreement would run through is 2060.