A coalition of organizations seeks to put pressure on the L.A. Board of Supervisors. to prevent evictions of tenants who have not complied with their payments. It’s been 965 days since Los Angeles County declared a local health emergency due to COVID-19, and landlords are still prevented from evictting tenants for not paying rent if it’s related to the pandemic. But now a federal court has ordered the county to stop enforcing the moratorium on Dec. 1, one month before it’s set to expire.
The Apartment Association of Los Angeles County and the Apartment Owners Association of California (AOA) secured an order from Judge Dean Pregerson granting a preliminary injunction for the county’s eviction moratorium.
The county’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
The order explains the moratorium was based on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors concluding in 2020 that COVID-19 “is causing, and is expected to continue to cause, serious financial impacts to Los Angeles County residents and businesses … impeding their ability to pay rent,” and that displacing tenants would worsen the present crisis. But COVID variants such as delta and omicron caused the county to extend the moratorium with a revised set of “tenant protections.”
Pregerson said the tenant protections violate landlords’ due process rights and are unconstitutionally vague. For example, in some instances, a county resolution states tenants shall not be evicted if they demonstrate that they can’t pay rent because of financial impacts related to the pandemic, but the county also asserts that there is no longer a total moratorium on evictions for COVID-related nonpayment of rent.
Jeffrey Faller, president of AOA, said eviction bans have encouraged unscrupulous renters to skip paying rent without recourse. But a group called Keep LA Housed has called. asus members to attend the meeting to seek greater
protection. Their demands include:
We have a chance to win big tenant protections, including:
-limitations on evictions for failure to pay small amounts of rent
-limitations on rent increases for RSO units for unincorporated LA for 2023
They also invite you to send your comments to the Board online:
Please submit your comments no later than Monday at 12:00 p.m. to ensure they are accessible to the public and the Board.
On the following website:
https://publiccomment.bos.lacounty.gov/
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