The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted on January 20 to pass permanent tenant protections that seek to keep renters in their homes as the city’s eviction moratorium lapses. The passage of a just cause eviction ordinance, which went into effect on January 27, makes Los Angeles the largest city in the U.S. to establish just cause protections and one of 10 jurisdictions to establish just cause legislation since January 2021.
“It was critical for just cause protections, along with other permanent protections to prevent evictions relating to rent, to be in place before the expiration of the emergency eviction protections to prevent the wave of evictions and homelessness we have been fearing since the beginning of the pandemic,” said attorney Faizah Malik of Public Counsel, a member of the Keep LA Housed coalition, which has been advocating for stronger tenant protections in L.A.
During months of debate, tenants and advocates pushed the City Council to protect the city’s lowest-income renters at risk of eviction during a worsening housing crisis. City councilmembers faced pressure to act in advance of January 31 – the expiration date of the city’s local COVID-19 state of emergency and corresponding eviction moratorium. The moratorium barred landlords from evicting renters who faced financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the Council allowed the citywide eviction moratorium to expire, Los Angeles renters will remain protected for two more months under the Los Angeles County eviction moratorium. The county’s moratorium covers renters in unincorporated areas of the county and incorporated cities without their own eviction moratorium, which encompasses the City of Los Angeles as of February 1. The county Board of Supervisors voted to extend its moratorium – also originally set to expire on January 31 – until March 31. Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, the sole renter on the Board of Supervisors, initially pushed for a six-month extension, but the proposal was scaled back to two months.
Following two hours of public comment, the 15-member Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted on January 20 to adopt an initial set of expansive and permanent tenant protections, which Mayor Karen Bass swiftly signed into law. The newly enacted Ordinance No. 187737 includes universal just cause eviction standards, which require landlords to provide a specific rationale to evict a tenant, such as unpaid rent, documented lease violations, nuisance or damage to property, or an owner move-in. Under Los Angeles’s universal just cause ordinance, all rental homes within the city will be covered, not just those that have historically been protected because of rent stabilization policies. Just cause eviction standards already apply to more than 600,000 rent-stabilized homes in Los Angeles, and this policy will greatly expand just cause standards to cover approximately 400,000 additional homes, making it the largest expansion in tenant protections since Los Angeles adopted rent stabilization in the 1970s.
The other ordinance approved by the City Council on January 20 formally ended the eviction moratorium. However, under pressure from advocates, the City Council did amend certain provisions of the ordinance to clarify the timeline for repayment and provide some additional time for certain evictions. Ordinance No. 187736 extends the timeline for repaying back-rent accumulated during the emergency period. Renters who accumulated past due rent between March 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020, will have until August of this year to clear their balance, while renters who owe payments for the period between October 1, 2021, and January 31 of this year will have until February 1, 2024, to make their required payments. In addition, the sunset ordinance bars landlords from evicting tenants because they have unauthorized pets or additional residents not listed on their leases until February 1, 2024.
Councilmembers provisionally approved a measure, on an initial 9-2 vote, that establishes a minimum threshold for eviction. Previously, a tenant in Los Angeles could have been evicted for having as little as $1 in unpaid rent. Under the ordinance, a tenant cannot be evicted for nonpayment unless the tenant’s unpaid rent exceeds one month of the city’s Fair Market Rent (FMR) for an equivalent sized rental home. The FMR in Los Angeles is $1,747 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,222 for a two-bedroom apartment. Because the measure did not pass unanimously, it will be read and voted on again on February 3.
The Council also discussed a proposal that requires landlords to pay relocation fees if they raise rents above 10% or 5% plus the rate of inflation, whichever is lesser. Most landlords would be required to pay the tenant three times the fair market rent for relocation assistance, plus $1,411 in moving costs. Landlords of single-family residences, however, would only be required to pay one month’s rent. Although the city’s rent stabilization ordinance and statewide anti-rent gouging laws already protect many renters from such steep rent spikes, the new ordinance will disincentivize rent spikes for tenants in approximately 84,000 homes built since 2008 that are not covered under existing law. An amendment was approved to clarify that the relocation assistance requirement is only triggered by increases in contracted monthly rent and does not apply to changes in promotional or discounted rent. To allow for time to draft this amendment, the relocation assistance proposal was tabled on January 27. Following amendments to the draft, it was heard again on January 31 where it passed with an 11-2 majority.
In addition to extending the countywide eviction moratorium, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also previously voted to adopt for unincorporated areas a nonpayment eviction threshold policy, which went into effect in December 2022. The County is also waiting for the completion of a report on a relocation assistance policy similar to that of the City of Los Angeles. Finally, it also voted to create a $45 million fund for small landlords, giving landlords the opportunity to apply for up to $30,000 in unpaid rent. The motion, brought forth by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Holly Mitchell, follows a recommendation from the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs to establish a $5 million fund to help small property owners with their costs. Landlords that have more than four rental units or that do not have any mortgage payments due on their properties will be ineligible to apply for relief. Landlords that accept the funds must agree not to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent.
Going forward, advocates in the Keep LA Housed coalition will push to expand tenant protections to renters across Los Angeles County. Keep LA Housed is pushing for a suite of policies under its LA County Tenant Bill of Rights, which includes the policies adopted by the City last week, along with a right to counsel and other policies. The Keep LA Housed coalition currently serves as a cohort member in NLIHC’s End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) project. The purpose of the ERASE project is to ensure that the historic aid enacted by Congress reaches the lowest-income and most marginalized renters it is intended to help, while also working to inform advocacy for long-term investments to end housing instability and homelessness in the U.S. To learn more about the work of the ERASE project, visit: https://nlihc.org/erase-project
Overall, the new ordinances enacted in the City and County of Los Angeles are the latest in a nationwide wave of efforts to codify permanent tenant protections as emergency rental assistance (ERA) runs out and emergency provisions expire. Since the start of the pandemic, dozens of cities and states have enacted policies aimed at increasing housing stability, addressing homelessness, preventing evictions, and strengthening tenants’ rights. NLIHC’s ERASE Project has documented more than 150 new tenant protections passed in 32 states and 73 localities since January 2021.
For a nationwide overview of new tenant protections, visit NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protections Database at: https://nlihc.org/tenant-protections