A proposal for rental protection for those impacted by the recent wildfires was postponed by the Los Angeles City Council in order to seek improvement.
In order to prevent the eviction of households affected by the recent fires in Los Angeles, council members heard public feedback and deliberated on the proposed package of tenant safeguards.
Among other things, the plan asked the city attorney to create an ordinance that would forbid specific kinds of evictions and impose a moratorium on rent increases for all flats in the city until January 31, 2026.
“We can’t keep putting the city’s problems on the backs of our housing providers who are still suffering from the devastating effects of the rent freezes, to blanket eviction protections without documentation, from the COVID era,” Councilwoman Traci Park said.
The proposal was referred back to the Housing and Homelessness Committee after several council members felt it needed additional details and explanation.
One of the council members who introduced the proposal, Hugo Soto-Martinez, defended its purpose by stating that it is not a general policy.
“This is a very narrowly tailored policy that is seeking to help people who have had economic hardship, or who have lost their jobs due to the fires,” he stated.
“This is not a moratorium on evictions. This is an eviction defense, which allows the tenant to defend themselves in the event that they are being evicted. There is a procedure for this; there isn’t a general rule.”
Park argued for additional research, asking how many people would require rental protection from the wildfire’s effects, for how long, and where they actually reside.
According to Park, her office discovered that employees at Gelsons, Vons, and Ralphs had already been transferred to other establishments shortly after the fire while collaborating with the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union. Housekeepers and gardeners are among the other economically displaced workers, and Park stated that her team “has been working with the entire CD11 community to place those individuals in new job opportunities.”
The Economic & Workforce Development Department, which obtained $20 million in state money to assist economically displaced workers, including temporary housing aid, will be a major source of funding, she added.
“What might make senses is a 90-day protection for people who can document a real impact, but we don’t even know how many people have actually lost work, or the extent or duration of those losses,” Park stated.
Officials from the Los Angeles Housing Department noted that because the city passed a just-clause rule two years ago, there is some leeway for renters who are unable to pay their rent in early February due to the fires. Tenants who owe less than the Fair Market Rent cannot be evicted by their landlords as a result.