LA County Supervisors Want Limited Eviction Protection For Fire-Affected Renters

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken a critical step in providing protections to renters financially impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires last month.

The board voted 4-0 Tuesday to have the Office of County Counsel draft a resolution that would protect these renters from eviction for nonpayment of rent from Feb. 1 until July 31, Pasadena Now reported. The amended motion originally sought the protections for a year. 

Eligible tenants would receive a defense against the legal process that results in eviction. They would need to show that they've lost at least 10% of their monthly income and make less than 150% of the area median income. The protections would apply to the entire county, including all 88 cities and unincorporated areas.

The qualifications mean tenants need not have lost their homes in the fires but could be among the many workers whose livelihoods were lost because their place of employment burned. 

The Eaton fire burned unincorporated LA County, while the Palisades fire occurred within LA city limits.

Eligible tenants must have applied for or received fire relief, unemployment, or some other kind of income assistance program, or be actively seeking employment. They also have to give notice to their landlord that rent will not be coming. 

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who originally introduced the motion, called the plan a “narrowly targeted eviction protection” that acknowledged that the impact of wildfires extended beyond those living in areas that were burned. 

While the county has made moves to pause evictions for some renters, the city of Los Angeles has largely been unable to advance these kinds of protections. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council failed to pass a proposal that would have granted eviction protections to renters who lost income because of the fires, LAist reported. An earlier attempt at freezing rents also failed. 

The city did, however, vote in favor of protecting renters who take in fire refugees from eviction on the basis of having too many people in their units, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month. 

CORRECTION, FEB. 20, 4:34 P.M. PT: A previous version of this story did not properly state which parts of the county would be covered by the protections. The story has been updated.