Researching Property Ownership

Property records can connect various landlord shell companies, reveal corporate plans, or help trace connections between individuals. Although these records are publicly available, they can be challenging to navigate. Joel Montano, Data Analyst from the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, will demonstrate best practices for following capital through land, how to connect firms to individuals, and how to map out real estate empires.

Joel Montano graduated from UCLA’s MURP program in 2020, whose capstone project focused on predatory landlord behavior and evictions in Los Angeles. As a recipient of UCLA’s Luskin Leadership Internship Awards Program, he worked with Liberty Hill Foundation in the summer of 2019 to support the passage of a permanent rent control ordinance for Unincorporated Los Angeles County. Prior to UCLA, Joel worked as the Affordable Housing Tenant Outreach Organizer for eight and a half years with the Coalition for Economic Survival—a non-profit tenant’s rights organization based in Los Angeles. He organized with tenants residing in HUD Project-based Section-8 and rent control housing to empower and develop their leadership skills to fight back against poor habitability conditions, inadequate management services, and displacement.