(Photo: Patch)
Los Angeles City Council Friday approved tenant protection targeting late rent payments and evictions.
Renters with behind rent payments need not worry as the council approved a one-month grace period before they can be evicted.
This comes on the heels of the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration’s end, which had covered tenants who endured financial difficulty because of the pandemic.
The newly adopted ordinance Tenant Protection allows tenants with a one-month balance to stay in their apartments unless they owe more than a month of due.
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(Photo: LAist)
The Tenant Protection ordinance included an urgency clause, but because it received only nine votes on Friday – three short of the 12 required to activate the clause – it will go into effect in 31 days. Traci Park, the lone dissenting vote, was cast. Paul Krekorian and Curren Price, both council members, recused themselves because they were landlords. Bob Blumenfield and John Lee were not present.
The council also previously adopted an ordinance requiring universal cause reasons for evictions and voted for a regulation on Tuesday for relocation assistance if a tenant cannot afford rent increases of a certain amount. For a final vote next week, the relocation assistance ordinance will return to the council.
According to Kyle Nelson, a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA and a member of the LA Renters’ Right to Counsel Coalition, eviction filings are starting to resemble pre-pandemic levels.
Nelson, who has compiled data on evictions in Los Angeles Country during the pandemic through court filings, said the number of filings could increase to levels not seen since the Great Recession — which contributed to more than 72,000 eviction filings in 2008. According to the National Equity Atlas, there are 226,000 households in Los Angeles Country behind on rent.
The pandemic caused a financial burden to all of us. This Tenant Protection is a massive help for people still experiencing economic turmoil brought on by the pandemic.
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