Evictions Roll In After LA Ends Covid-Era Protections, But Tenants Are Fighting For Their Rights

Months after Los Angeles-area apartment owners regained the ability to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent, lingering effects of the pandemic and the renter protections instituted because of it are still impacting the day-to-day lives of landlords and tenants alike.

And with thousands of evictions working through an overloaded system, a worsening affordability crisis and lackluster receipts from Measure ULA, it seems the challenges are just getting started.

“There are people still in our buildings who have Covid debt, and the vast majority of them are paying the current rent and they're also paying a portion of the back rent,” Universe Holdings CEO Henry Manoucheri said.

“Those who are not paying rent at all, those are getting evicted,” he said.  

Beginning in February, property owners were once again able to pursue eviction for nonpayment of rent. This year, the city has been notified of 61,124 evictions citywide, according to the Los Angeles Housing Department. From February to December 2023, the city received notice of 77,049 evictions.

Manoucheri, who owns approximately 1,500 units in the city of Los Angeles, said he has filed paperwork for about 40 evictions since the beginning of the year. That is roughly a 90% increase from the same period prepandemic, he estimated.

Property owner Mark Weinstein said there are “bad apples” who take advantage of a system that was created to help people in dire straits from losing their homes. Weinstein is the president of MJW Investments, which owns approximately 500 units in LA city limits. 

“​​We still have quite a few tenants that aren't paying, and they were trained that they could get away with it,” Weinstein said, suggesting that pandemic policies had built that expectation. 

Like Manoucheri, Weinstein said prior to the pandemic, his company executed a fraction of the evictions he is involved in now. He estimated he has about 10 open evictions.

“We didn't have the problems we have now,” Weinstein said. 

Los Angeles courts, meanwhile, aren’t equipped to deal with the increased capacity, and tenant advocates are coaching tenants on how to protect their rights, fight for fair treatment and, in some cases, stay in their homes.

“Tenants basically are getting free legal advice from attorneys provided by the city, and most of them are asking for jury trials,” Manoucheri said.

Jury trials add to the cost of evicting someone, Manoucheri said, adding “courts are oversaturated” with eviction cases. He said it has taken him six to nine months to complete an eviction. 

Tenant advocates have been busy since the end of pandemic-era renter protections. They champion the renter-focused programs like rent relief that came out of the pandemic, but they want to build on gains made by ensuring things like city-provided counsel for renters facing eviction, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy Tenants’ Rights Director Edna Monroy said. 

Guidelines for city programs that will receive funding from the real estate transfer tax Measure ULA went before the city council’s housing and homelessness committee this week. Among the considerations were eviction defense programs such as right to counsel, as well as money for social housing programs and rent support to seniors and tenants with disabilities.

Renter protections in the city could get a boost from revenue generated by Measure ULA, even though it hasn’t generated as much as initially anticipated. When it was voted on, the tax was expected to generate $672M in its first year, or $56M per month. 

The tax, which went into effect nearly a year and a half ago, has so far generated $375M. 

Although Measure ULA hasn’t met its revenue projections, the money it has made provides funds the city didn't previously have, United to House LA Executive Director Joe Donlin told Bisnow in an email. 

In only its first year, Measure ULA helped keep 11,000 renters housed through its rental assistance program, Donlin said. 

Later this year, the council could approve guidelines for almost a dozen new programs funded by the measure and created by its citizens oversight committee that would beef up the resources available to renters who are in danger of losing their homes. 

Although the prospect of even more protections that are aimed at helping renters are on the horizon, Manoucheri said he is beginning to reconsider a plan to avoid buying in Los Angeles. 

Manoucheri said the fundamentals of rentals are very strong in LA, especially because home prices remain elevated and fewer people can afford to become homeowners. 

“We think that maybe it's time to rethink and reenter the market here, now that the worst is behind us, and find some opportunities,” Manoucheri said.