A bill ensuring apartment tenants have the right to grow produce in their homes has been signed into law by the Governor.
AB 2561, by Assembly Member Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), ensures that landlords and homeowners associations (HOA) may not unreasonably prohibit a tenant’s ability to grow food in his or her backyard.
“We have heard a lot in recent years about food deserts—areas where families do not have access to fresh and healthy foods,” Bradford said. “Low-income families are concentrated in these areas and suffer the effects of a poor diet, namely obesity and other diet-related diseases.”
The bill protects the rights of tenants in one- or two-unit buildings to grow food for personal consumption in portable containers. The bill extends the same protections to homeowners by preventing a homeowners association from instituting a ban on backyard produce.
“By expanding families’ options for growing their own foods, we can promote healthy diets, economic development in some of our hardest-hit communities, and sustainable agriculture at a time of severe drought across California,” Bradford continued. “It only makes sense that the state that pioneered the farmer’s market movement should take another step toward small-scale, locally-grown, sustainable farming and all of the benefits that entails.”
Assembly Member Steven Bradford represents the 62nd Assembly District, comprised of the cities of Hawthorne, Lawndale, Inglewood, and El Segundo, and the communities of North Gardena, Westchester, Venice, and Del Rey, and parts of Westmont and Park Mesa Heights, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
