LA council delays vote on proposal to pause evictions and rent increases due to fires

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a host of emergency responses to the past week’s historically destructive wildfires. But the council delayed one proposal that would have protected Angelenos affected by fires from evictions and rent hikes.

Similar to rules the city enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposal seeks to stop landlords from increasing rents for one year and halt evictions for tenants who fall behind on rent because they lost income, fell ill or took in additional roommates due to fires.

Instead of taking up the motion introduced by Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez, the council diverted the proposal to the Housing and Homeless Committee, where it now faces an uncertain future.

“We're disappointed and frustrated that the council wouldn't act immediately to take care of this during a crisis,” said Jonathan Jager, an attorney with Public Counsel and a member of the Keep L.A. Housed coalition.

Tenant advocates want broad protections

Jager said tenant rights lawyers are starting to hear from renters facing pressure to quickly leave their apartments so landlords can move in someone displaced by the fires.

“It's not just tenants who lost their homes,” Jager said. “It’s also tenants who may not have a job now if the business they worked at is lost, or tenants who were domestic workers for people who lost their homes. The effects of this are wide ranging.”

Landlords say any new rules should be limited

Landlord advocacy groups say a return to COVID-era tenant protections would be overreach.

“These emergency motions should deal with the fire and those displaced and immediately impacted,” Fred Sutton, spokesperson for the California Apartment Association, said during public comment at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“We stand ready to do our part,” he added. “But there must be responsible policy making moving forward on housing regulations.”

Some housing motions approved

Other emergency motions that were swiftly approved Tuesday include a request that the City Attorney’s Office fully prosecute all curfew violations by non-residents in evacuation zones, and a request that the L.A. Department of Water and Power report to the council on the water pressure issues that led to problems with fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades.

Two emergency proposals related to housing sailed through the council.

One requests the city attorney prepare an ordinance that protects renters from eviction if they take in fire victims and their pets. Those new occupants would normally be banned under the terms of many leases. This motion, however, would not stop landlords from charging the additional 10% rent increase for new occupants allowed under the city’s rent control law.

Another proposal the council approved seeks to increase the penalty for landlords prosecuted for post-disaster rent gouging to $30,000, up from $1,000. In the last week, tenant advocates have collected hundreds of examples of public listings they say have increased rents by more than 10% in the days after the fires broke out.

The proposal from Hernandez and Soto-Martinez needs approval in committee before it can go to the full council for a final vote. Landlord groups say they plan to lobby against sweeping eviction protections for tenants who attest they’ve been harmed by the fires. Tenant advocates say any delay could leave renters vulnerable to losing their housing.

“There's now an influx of renters at least temporarily entering a housing market that was already in a crisis before the fires started,” Jager said. “The pressures are going to be greatly increased.”