Los Angeles City Council Says Tenants Awaiting Rental Assistance Can't Be Evicted Before It Arrives

With a vote Friday, the Los Angeles City Council prohibited the eviction of tenants who were approved for monetary rental assistance but haven't yet received it. 

There are more than 25,000 applicants who are still waiting to hear back if they will receive as much as six months' back rent from the United to House LA Emergency Renters Assistance Program, the LA Times reported. 

About 3,200 applicants have already been approved, but most haven't received their funds. Just a quarter of the $30.4M set aside for rental assistance has been disbursed. 

The council's vote comes less than a week from the Feb. 1 deadline to pay rent accrued from Oct. 1, 2021, to Jan. 31, 2023. The deadline was part of the city's plan to slowly phase out temporary renter protections instituted early in the pandemic. 

The council's decision also represents a successful push from property owner groups to amend it. The motion as originally authored would have protected all applicants to the program, not just the ones whose applications were approved, the LA Times reported. However, once an application is approved, the renter who filed it will be protected from eviction for 120 days after Feb. 1 to allow for the rental assistance funds to be processed and distributed. 

From February to November 2023, the Los Angeles Housing Department signaled its intent to evict 71,429 households, according to data compiled by Controller Kenneth Mejia. Of those, 96% were for nonpayment of rent. It was anticipated that, through November 2023, about 43,000 of those cases went to court, the LA Times previously reported.

There are several reasons for the difference in numbers, including that landlords are offering tenants money to move out rather than going through the eviction process or that they are forgiving some rent and making arrangements for tenants to stay, experts told the LA Times.