The City of Los Angeles launched in August a new emergency rental assistance (ERA) program for households with past due rental arrears. The United to House Los Angeles (ULA) Emergency Rental Assistance Program will assist low-income tenants who have faced hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are at risk of homelessness with up to six months of rental assistance payments to be paid directly to landlords or property owners. The application period, which opened on September 19, will close at 6 pm PST on October 2, 2023.
The creation of Los Angeles’s new ERA program follows the expiration of city-wide pandemic-related regulations and protections that were in place to mitigate the threat of a wave of evictions and homelessness brought on by financial hardship caused by the pandemic. When the city’s regulations went into effect more than three years ago, renters who were at 80% of the county’s area median income (AMI) were able to defer their rental payments to remain stably housed amid the ongoing public health crisis. However, on March 31, 2023 – the date the city’s pandemic-era protections were lifted – Los Angeles mandated that all past due rents accrued between March 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, would need to be paid back by tenants by August 1, 2023, in order to avoid the threat of eviction being levied against them. For tenants with unpaid rental payments that accrued between October 2021 and February 2023, those rental payments will need to be paid in full by February 1, 2024.
Now that more than two months without protections in place for renters who missed rental payments early in the pandemic have passed, the effects are already noticeable. Prior to the expiration of the city’s pandemic-era protections, more than 200,000 renter households in the Los Angeles area were behind on their rental payments, resulting in more than half a billion dollars in unpaid rents. When protections were lifted, eviction filings began occurring in rapid succession. Between January and June 2023, Los Angeles County saw the highest number of evictions filed in the first half of the year since 2016, with more than 23,000 eviction filings filed against tenants. With such high rates of eviction cases being filed, the city is now reported as on the brink of an eviction crisis.
Since the start of the year, lawmakers, alongside tenant advocates, community leaders, and members of other justice-based housing organizations, have been working to divert the impending threat of an eviction crisis. In the first half of 2023, tenant organizers advocated for the passage of a “just cause” eviction law that would prohibit landlords and property owners from evicting a tenant without good cause, such as for nonpayment of rent, violations to the lease agreement, and prohibited criminal activity. In August 2023, the Los Angeles City Council approved a measure to create the United to House Los Angeles (ULA) Emergency Rental Assistance Program, offering short-term relief for tenants.
Under the new program, tenants can apply online, by phone, or in person at one of the city’s 15 designated locations to receive support in paying back their past due rent. As noted, the program will only assist tenants with up to six months of back-owed rent, and tenants must be considered low-income or extremely low-income to be eligible to apply, meaning a tenant’s income cannot exceed more than 80% of the regional AMI limits for the city (equivalent to $70,650 for a one-person household). For individuals to be considered extremely low-income, they must not be making over 30% AMI, which is equivalent to $26,500 for a one-person household. Currently, individuals who accrued past due rent between the March 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, will be prioritized for assistance.
The ULA Emergency Rental Assistance Program will be funded through “Measure ULA,” otherwise known as the “mansion tax.” The measure passed in November 2021 with 57% support and will impose a 4% tax on properties that are sold for over $5 million, as well as a 5.5% tax on properties that are sold for over $10 million. So far, the measure has raised more than $38 million in revenue for the city, with city officials estimating that the tax could raise up to $670 million. In August 2023, the Los Angeles City Council voted to expend $150 million of the measure’s revenue, with $18.4 million going towards the ULA Emergency Rental Assistance Program. The city’s councilmembers also voted to allocate $23 million to a new right-to-counsel program, $5.5 million to tenant outreach and education, and $11.2 million to a tenant harassment protection program, which will inform tenants about their rights regarding a Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance that was passed in August 2021.
While the program is only currently assisting tenants, rental assistance applications for landlords or property owners with fewer than 12 units will open on October 23, 2023.
To learn more about the City of Los Angeles’s ULA Emergency Rental Assistance Program, including whether you are eligible to apply, visit the city’s website here.