The Brief

Tenants in the city of Los Angeles must repay all of their past-due rent from earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic by Thursday or they could face eviction.

The repayment deadline marks the end of nearly four years of city rules that gave tenants safeguards from eviction if they couldn’t keep up with rent due to pandemic job loss or illness.

Landlords say these protections have lasted far too long, putting unfair financial burdens on the city’s rental property owners. But tenant advocates point to data showing that many L.A. renters continue to carry large debts, and many could soon be at risk of losing their homes.

“Landlords have been waiting for this date,” said Bijan Ghaemi, an organizer with Community Power Collective and a member of the Keep L.A. Housed coalition. “There’s going to be a huge wave of evictions.”

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the L.A. Housing Department, found that up to 93,000 city households have COVID-19 rent debt due by Thursday’s deadline.

The key dates

Rent in L.A. was never canceled during the pandemic — only delayed. The city’s protections for late rent ended back in February 2023. But protections have so far continued for tenants with unpaid balances from months prior.

An earlier deadline in August 2023 required tenants in the city to repay debts from the first year-and-a-half of the pandemic. Now, the city’s Thursday deadline requires tenants to pay back everything they owe from October 2021 through January 2023.

Barbara Schultz, who directs eviction defense work at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said lawyers are already in short supply for renters currently facing eviction. She worries that shortage, coupled with the end of rent debt protections, could drive L.A.’s rising homelessness numbers even higher.

“The concern is that if there will be more evictions filed, tenants will not be able to find representation and they will be displaced and potentially rendered homeless,” Schultz said.

Last year’s homeless count released in June found the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city had jumped 10% from the prior year to a total of 46,260.

Where’s the rent relief?

The city launched a rent relief program in September 2023 aiming to clear these debts before the deadline. The application period closed in October. By Tuesday afternoon, the city had distributed less than $8 million of the $30 million in total available funding.

The city council voted last week to continue eviction protections for rent relief applicants who’ve been approved, but who have yet to receive payments. However, pending applicants who have not been approved will head into February without protections.

The city does not have enough funding for everyone who applied. Applicants requested the city’s help paying off more than $470 million worth of back rent.

Rose Serna, a single mom in Highland Park with about $4,000 in pandemic rent debt coming due Thursday, said she applied for the city’s rent relief program but has not yet received approval. She said she trusted the city to make tenants whole before the deadline.

“It feels hugely irresponsible of the city when we are in such a dire housing and homelessness crisis,” said Serna, who previously spoke to LAist about her housing instability. “I was trying to do everything they were telling us to do. And in the end, I guess it wasn't okay to follow their advice because now it's just like the rug is being pulled from under us.”

Serna said she’ll do whatever she has to do to stay housed, even if it means seeking loans or going into credit card debt.

Will evictions spike after Feb. 1?

Evictions in L.A. County have already eclipsed pre-pandemic levels. Landlords filed close to 48,000 evictions last year, a 25% increase from 2022 and more than the 40,572 filings in 2019.

Dan Yukelson with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angele, a local landlord advocacy group, doubts the expiring protections will cause a huge spike in evictions.

He said many landlords have already discussed payment plans with tenants who owe back rent. In other cases, he said, tenants with large unpaid balances have already moved out.

“There has certainly been enough notice given to tenants about the rent due date,” Yukelson said. He acknowledged some landlords will have no choice but to evict.

“Inevitably, owners will need to recover their units,” he said. “Because they have mortgages, much higher insurance, trash hauling fees to pay and everything else. They just can't sustain themselves unless they're collecting the revenue that's legally owed to them.”

Up to 93,000 households are behind 

For their study, researchers with the University of Pennsylvania used survey data to estimate how many renters will be affected by the city’s looming deadline.

Researchers estimate that about half of the nearly 93,000 renters behind on rent owe relatively small sums of money (three months worth of rent or less). But up to 17,000 households were carrying large balances (one year’s worth of rent or more).

The researchers also surveyed landlords, finding that those who own 50 units or more were much more likely to pursue eviction than owners with less than five units.

About 71% of large landlords surveyed said they planned to evict tenants behind on rent after the expiration of earlier city protections, compared to 39% of smaller landlords.

At the same time, smaller landlords reported more difficulty keeping up with their mortgages during the pandemic. About 37% of surveyed small landlords with late rent fell behind on their mortgage at least once during the pandemic. Among larger landlords with late rent, about 20% reported missing mortgage payments.

What resources are available?

City outreach workers have already begun tracking down tenants at risk of eviction, offering to connect them with legal services. The city also funds a program called Stay Housed L.A. that can refer low-income renters to free attorneys in certain cases.

In a statement, City Councilmember and housing committee chair Nithya Raman said, “With the landscape for renters changing once again on February 1, it is imperative that we ensure that Angelenos know their rights and that the City is here to help them.”

The city’s housing department is encouraging tenants to call their hotline at (866) 557-7368 for help understanding their rights. Last year, the city council passed a host of new regulations to help renters including a rule that bars landlords from evicting tenants over less than about one month’s worth of late rent. LAist has also put together a comprehensive guide on L.A.’s ever-evolving rental housing regulations.

Lineage has said it is racing to meet Mayor Karen Bass’ 45-day deadline to remove millions of pounds of spoiled food waste from the burned warehouse in Boyle Heights. That date is fast approaching on Aug 14. Here’s where things stand as we’re more than halfway through. 

Cleanup progress

• As of July 20, Lineage has removed approximately 3,520 tons or 7 million pounds of food and building debris. 
• An estimated 3,195 tons or 6.4 million pounds of that total is food waste that has been removed from inside the building. (Before the fire, the warehouse stored approximately 44,000 tons, aka 88 million pounds, of food inside.)
• To date, 56% percent of the damaged roof has been removed, according to L.A. County Public Works.
• This week, Lineage said it increased the number of trucks removing debris from the site.

What’s left to clean up? 

• It’s unclear how much food waste and debris are still left to clean up, but an aerial image of the building from Lineage shows that almost half of the building has been torn down and cleared. 
• At Tuesday’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting, Leslie Luke, deputy director for the county’s Office of Emergency Management, said Lineage is now working to tear down a concrete wall that separates “Freezer 1,” which burned in the fire, and “Freezer 2.”
  
  • “… by doing so they’ll be able to get to Freezer 2 and rows of product in there. Each one of the rows is about the size of two football fields, and there are about 28 rows in that second freezer,” Luke said.

Odor mitigation

• Residents continue to report strong odors emanating from the warehouse. 
• On Friday, July 17, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) issued a formal demand letter requiring Lineage to strengthen its Odor Management Plan after receiving over 900 odor complaints.
• This week, Lineage responded to the letter and said:
  
  • They have implemented misting systems to mitigate odor around the building.
  • Food waste is being sprayed down with odor control, bleach and water.
  • Food waste from Building 2 will be sprayed down with a Posi-Lock odor containment system, but the contents of Building 1 are too wet to do so.  
  • They have wrapped the entire building in plastic sheeting and will repair or replace any that becomes damaged or worn within 72 hours.
  • They are unable to wrap the food being removed from Building 1, as it would add months to the cleanup process.
  • The full response from Lineage is available here.
• To report the odor call 1-800-CUT-SMOG, file a report online at aqmd.gov/complaints or download the free South Coast AQMD mobile app to submit complaints from your phone.

LA Documenter Julania Marechal-Raymond contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

This story appeared first on LA Local.

The Los Angeles Metro Board voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with a plan that would create the first-ever seat for a regular transit rider on the agency’s governing board. Such a plan would need state approval before it becomes final.

Janice Hahn, an L.A. County supervisor and Metro Board member, introduced the motion.

Another motion put forward by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass passed on a 12-1 vote. That motion would also reserve a seat — one of the L.A. mayor’s three appointees — for a rider or rider advocate. Both rider seats would have voting power. The make up of the rest of the board would largely remain the same, although members asked Metro staff to further study adding a labor representative.

The L.A. Metro Board has an annual budget of nearly $10 billion and facilitates countywide transportation projects.

Earlier this year, a Metro committee began debating the future composition of its board. The discussion was prompted by Measure G, the voter-approved initiative that will expand the county Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, and add a position for an elected countywide executive.

Five of the Metro Board’s 13 voting seats are reserved for county supervisors. Bass’ motion maintains the five county seats and will leave it up to the Board of Supervisors to decide who, including the county executive, will have a seat on the Metro Board.

Lindsey Horvath, an L.A. County supervisor and Metro board member, cast the lone dissenting vote Thursday on Bass’ motion. Horvath said she supports the inclusion of a rider voice on the board, but had campaigned for a designated seat for the county executive.

“ The county executive will be the only elected seat to represent the entire county of Los Angeles,” Horvath told LAist before Thursday’s vote. “For that position to not be at the decision-making table on something as critical as transit solutions for the region ... makes absolutely no sense.”

The make up of the Metro Board is codified in the state’s public utilities code, so any proposed changes approved on Thursday will need another vote by legislators in Sacramento before they become official.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump feted Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House on Thursday, calling the team “one of the great brands anywhere in the world” during a Rose Garden event celebrating its second title in as many years.

Trump said the Dodgers edging the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 last fall capped “a hell of a series.” He indicated he was surprised to learn that the Dodgers had never before won consecutive titles but also mused about a third in a row.

“I’m thrilled to say welcome back to the White House,” he said. “And maybe I’ll see you again next year.”

The president saluted the team in the East Room in April 2025 to mark their 2024 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. He said before the latest event that he was most excited about meeting Ohtani, whom he compared at length to the legendary Babe Ruth — even saying the Dodgers star was arguably the best hitter and pitcher in baseball.

“It’s truly a great — when you talk about a brand — it’s one of the great brands anywhere in the world,” Trump said of the Dodgers. He spoke in front of a table with two World Series trophies and a Trump 47 jersey, which the team presented to him.

The Dodgers also gave Trump what looked like a replica of a World Series ring. That prompted Trump to exclaim: “Wow. Do I have to report this? I don’t want to report this” before slipping the ring into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

Trump says Iran war has kept him from following baseball closely

Those in the crowd wore blue Dodgers caps to guard against bright overhead sun, and the band played a jazzy instrumental version of Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” before Trump took the stage.

Trump described last year’s World Series’ epic Game 3 during which the Dodgers won 6-5 in 18 innings. Trump said he stayed up until around 3 a.m. to watch, noting that “it was a long one, but it was amazing.”

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani.

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Alex Brandon

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AP

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“I thought it was a game that you were going to lose about four or five times, and you ended up winning,” he said, adding, “Luck is OK, too, right?” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts agreed: “Luck is OK.”

“But with talent you get a lot of luck,” Trump continued.

The president said he spoke briefly with Roberts before the event and learned that his team currently has the best record in baseball, noting, “I’ve been a little busy with Iran and some other things.”

That was his only reference during the event to fighting in the Middle East, which has escalated on both sides in recent days.

Roberts also spoke briefly, saying, “We’re going for a three-peat.”

Championship baseball teams have been coming to the White House since 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant hosted the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They were the first fully professional team to visit the White House and went undefeated that season, though the World Series wasn’t established in its modern form until 1903.

Sports teams’ visits to the Trump White House have sometimes been a source of controversy. In 2018, the president rescinded an invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after many players suggested they might skip such a trip.

Dodgers star right fielder Mookie Betts wasn’t at Thursday’s Rose Garden event, though he did make the 2025 visit. He said he prefers to spend the team’s scheduled days off with his family.

The Dodgers originally considered coming to the White House this past April during a series with the Washington Nationals, but a crowded early season schedule didn’t permit that. Instead, they’re in the nation’s capital during the off-day between a just-completed series against the Philadelphia Phillies and Friday’s opener against the New York Mets in Queens.

The White House has changed since the Dodgers’ last visit

Over the past year, Trump has revamped the Rose Garden and added a patio area reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. At Thursday’s event for the Dodgers, he referenced the “ Walk of Fame ” installed on the colonnade, which features plaques of past presidents along with partisan insults against Joe Biden and other Democrats.

“I could put some of the great Dodgers on the wall,” Trump joked, “but I figured maybe it’s more appropriate that we put the presidents.”

Trump, a baseball fan and New York native, has for years been closely associated with the Yankees, whose late, longtime owner George Steinbrenner was a close friend. Trump referenced Steinbrenner on Thursday, saying, “He would do anything to win” before telling the Dodgers’ team owners, “But you’re doing the same thing.”

The president isn’t always so complimentary of teams, though. During a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, he praised the ownership of the local Atlanta Braves and slammed the Mets for their sky-high payroll and losing record.

Trump was joined on stage during that event by former Braves manager Brian Snitker, and Mike Plant, president and CEO of the Braves Development Company.

”You know, the Mets have the highest salary in baseball, and they lose all the time,” Trump said then. "And I’m like, maybe we can steal this guy.”

“There are teams like that, where they never go down,” Trump said. “Then you have other teams — ‘We’re rebuilding.’ They’ve been rebuilding for years. I don’t want to mention teams ’cause I know all the owners. They’re all friends of mine.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Republican Steve Hilton launched his general election campaign for California governor Wednesday with a gambit to win over left-leaning voters who dominate the state: Even if they loathe President Donald Trump, he said, they should consider voting for him.

During an event in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of a stinking, scorched food warehouse he described as a symbol of the state’s political incompetence, Hilton rolled out a list of campaign promises clearly aimed at residents buckling under California’s notoriously high cost of living. He vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation’s highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings.

He blamed the state’s problems — from homelessness to low student test scores — squarely on Democrats, who hold every statewide office and supermajorities in the Legislature. He called Democrats a “rotten regime that has abandoned the working class.”

In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the state, Hilton addressed his relationship with Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“This is not about who you hate in Washington. It’s about what we love about California and what we can do to make California once again the best place anywhere in the country to start and raise a family, to start and run a business,” he said before a small group of supporters. “That’s what this election is about.”

Hilton’s maneuver is meant to create a sliver of distance from Trump without breaking from him. It’s a tacit nod to the political math in California, one of the nation’s most solidly Democratic states. Registered Republicans are outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by Democratic voters, and a GOP candidate hasn’t won a statewide election since 2006.

Trump is widely unpopular in California outside his loyal conservative base. In 2016, Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 30 points; in 2020, he lost to Joe Biden by 29 points; and in 2024, he lost to Kamala Harris by 20 points.

California is regarded as the home of the so-called Trump resistance, where Democrats have effectively used Trump as a foil in campaigns to motivate voters. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom essentially nationalized the state’s fight over Proposition 50, which recast U.S. House districts to favor Democrats, by framing it as a confrontation with Trump. The measure notched a 29-point win.

The campaign of Hilton’s Democratic opponent, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, scoffed at the notion of Hilton being a change agent.

“Californians already know who Steve Hilton is: Trump’s puppet in California. His campaign is a promise to run our state the way Trump runs the country and we’re not buying it,” campaign spokesman Jonathan Underland said in a statement.

As for Hilton’s pitch that voters who dislike Trump should feel free to consider him in November, Underland said, “Steve Hilton cheers on a president whose illegal war has sent gas prices soaring and illegal tariffs have cost California families more than $2,500 this year alone. You can’t fix the affordability crisis while carrying water for the man causing it.”

In a heavily Democratic state, Hilton’s campaign is hoping his appeal to Democrats and independents will “give voters a permission slip” to look past the letter next to a candidate’s name, even in a nation deeply divided by partisanship.

“You do have a choice if you think that this state is going in the wrong direction,” he told supporters at a kickoff event in Boyle Heights, a Los Angeles neighborhood where residents have been complaining about the stench of rotting food, flies and rodents that followed a fire last month at a cold storage warehouse.

He was accompanied by Gloria Romero, a former Democratic state lawmaker who switched parties in 2024 and is this year’s Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. She delivered her own address in both English and Spanish, with supporters holding “Hilton-Romero” signs in the background.

Becerra, a former state lawmaker, congressman and state attorney general, is heavily favored to win the seat now held by Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who is barred by law from seeking a third term. Hilton and Becerra emerged from a chaotic primary election in June that had more than 50 candidates on the ballot.

The race is unfolding at a time when California is facing multiple crises. Despite billions in spending, homelessness remains widespread, especially in larger cities. Multibillion-dollar budget gaps are projected into the future. Home prices remain out of reach for many residents. The home insurance market is in disarray, businesses and residents have been fleeing the state, and residents contend with some of the nation’s highest gas prices, taxes and utility bills.

Making good on his campaign promises won’t be an easy task for Hilton, a former adviser to ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron who has never held elective office. The governor doesn’t control the oil or utility markets, but Hilton says he will get rid of mandates, taxes and fees that drive those prices higher. He also would likely need the consent of a Legislature controlled by Democrats to change the state’s income tax structure.

Hilton crowned his campaign kickoff with a 30-second TV ad underscoring the financial challenges for many families.

“Life here has become impossible for anyone who isn’t already rich,” he says. “Let’s fix California.”