BASTA, Inc. is a California public benefit corporation and federally registered, tax-exempt, non-profit organization that specializes in tenants' rights and advocacy.  Over the past several years, BASTA has developed into one of the premier tenants’ rights organizations in southern California and is a proud, front-line soldier in the fight to eliminate substandard housing. 

BASTA was founded in 2004 by Daniel J. Bramzon, currently BASTA's President and Senior Trial Counsel.  Mr. Bramzon, the son of a Mexican immigrant, graduated from Stanford University and the University of Chicago Law School.  He began his legal career at a large Century City firm.  While working at that firm, during his own free time, Mr. Bramzon helped the office building's custodial staff with some landlord-tenant issues. Through those experiences, Mr. Bramzon learned that many landlords ignored state and local laws and wrongfully evicted tens of thousands of families every year.  Through his pro-bono work with the custodial staff, Mr. Bramzon also discovered that significant portions of Los Angeles County’s residents lived in apartment conditions reminiscent of the Third World.  BASTA arose to remedy these injustices.

BASTA provides general assistance to tenants, eliminates homelessness at its source, engages in tenant education and outreach, conducts building inspections, and utilizes our judicial system to enforce housing laws, improve living conditions for the poor, and eliminate substandard housing.  We regularly work with various local and state agencies to ensure compliance with regulatory inspection reports, and we prosecute slumlords when governmental authorities unfortunately lack the resources to do so. 

When Mr. Bramzon founded BASTA, he desired to apply an innovative structure to the fledgling group – an organization with a non-profit heart but a corporate discipline and approach.  The results speak for themselves.  In its relatively short existence, BASTA has miraculously managed to grow from Mr. Bramzon and a single assistant working in Mr. Bramzon’s living room to:

• Nearly 3,000 sq. ft. of office space in Los Angeles and second office in Lancaster
  
  
• Six full-time attorneys and two part-time attorneys, all of the highest caliber and with an approximate 80% winning percentage in jury trials
  
  
• A case load that includes between 20-30 eviction defense cases per month and several class/mass actions
  
  
• A partnership with the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) that provides internship opportunities for 10 USC law students every semester
  
  
• Approximately $2,000,000 in rent waivers and relocation disbursements to tenants

In our brief history, BASTA learned that many sources of non-profit funding and  grants come with “strings attached,” directing the recipient organizations as to who or what groups of people could or could not be assisted with those monies. Because BASTA does not accept any federal funds or other financial aid that could substantially restrict its assistance, BASTA is able to help people regardless of economic limitations, immigration status, sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other factor