Housing resources available despite expired COVID tenant protections, LA mayor says

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With COVID-era tenant protections ending on Tuesday, renters in Los Angeles owe whatever payments are past due between March 2020 and September 2021.

The expiration of protections means landlords can send notices to evict, however L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urges people to use services available to them instead.

"Our message today to Angelenos is clear: Do not self-evict," said Bass during an event on Monday. "If you receive a notice, file a response, and most importantly, reach out to the city for support."

Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman and the city's housing leadership shared its plan to keep people from ending up unhoused at a time when homelessness is rising.

It includes information campaigns to connect those in need with the services they may qualify for, particularly low-income households and ones where tenants do not speak English. They are also focusing on outreach efforts.

Before a tenant receives an eviction notice, their landlord now has to notify the city's housing department.

"This means we have an opportunity to target those resources to people who are most at risk of losing their homes because of an inability pay," said Raman.

On Wednesday, the city council's housing and homelessness committee is expected to consider whether to use roughly $38 million in United to House LA (ULA) funds to assist those in need.

The ULA fund contains the money raised through LA's "mansion tax." The funds will go toward supporting both tenants and landlords.

"We would be totally defeating our goal here if we just paid attention to the tenants, and then the landlords fell behind in their mortgages," said Bass. "So we have to make sure we take care of both."

If passed, it would provide rental assistance to the landlords of low-income households and expand certain legal and financial services for tenants.

Tenants have until February 2024 to pay the missing rent that was due between October 2021 and January 2023.