LA renters rally for eviction protection as COVID state of emergency ends
The City Council voted again to end Los Angeles' COVID-19 state of local emergency at the end of the month, after a motion to extend the emergency and keep in place temporary tenant protections failed Jan. 10.
A group rallied downtown Los Angeles this morning, calling for continuing renter protection to prevent evictions as the tenant protections reach their end.
The council voted in December to set a final termination date for the emergency after extending it indefinitely every month since March 2020.
Council members Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez filed an amending motion to cancel the state of emergency end date in order to work through a plan for permanent tenant protections. But that motion failed to pass, leaving the state of emergency eviction moratorium of the pandemic-era policy, to end Feb. 1, 2023.
Council President Paul Krekorian backed the end date, seeking to separate tenant protections from the COVID-19 state of emergency. Krekorian also pledged to agendize items pertaining to tenant protections once they are passed out of committees.
"Tenant protections are not before us," Krekorian said. "What's before us is whether there is a state of emergency before us because of COVID, and there is not. There clearly is not."
The local state of emergency ensured that renter protections created during the pandemic remain in place, but the city's longstanding eviction protections due to COVID-19 hardship are also set to expire at the end of January.
Tenants who have missed payments since March 2020 will have to meet two repayment deadlines. Under state law, they have until Aug. 1, 2023, to pay back missed rent between March 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. Under the city's moratorium, tenants will have until Feb. 1, 2024, to repay rent accumulated from Oct. 1, 2021 to Feb. 1, 2023
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