LA County Leaders Advance Proposal That Could Require AC In Rental Housing

It may be cold in Los Angeles these days. But as every Angeleno knows, this place gets hot — even life-threateningly hot for some residents.

This week, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors took a step toward requiring cooling measures in rental housing.

Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis put forward a motion to begin crafting regulations and reaching out to tenants, landlords and public health experts about plans to establish a legal maximum indoor temperature in rental housing.

The plans are still in early stages, and it’s not yet clear what exact cooling devices would be required when temperatures rise above the max. The motion passed on a 4-1 vote, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger casting the lone "no" vote against the plan.

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In a statement following Tuesday’s vote, Horvath said extreme heat is one of the deadliest consequences of climate change currently facing L.A. residents.

“More frequent, longer and hotter heat waves in L.A. County are a public health emergency,” said Horvath, the board’s only renter. “Setting a maximum temperature for rental units will protect our most vulnerable Angelenos, including older adults and families with young children, who deserve safety and comfort in their own home.”

The county’s Department of Public Health issued a report last year recommending that L.A.’s building code be amended to require indoor temperatures of less than 82 degrees Fahrenheit in housing outfitted with air conditioning.

Currently, L.A. landlords are required to provide their renters with adequate heat. But no such requirement exists for air conditioning.

Final votes months away

Any final vote on requiring air conditioning is still months away, and many questions on implementation have yet to be decided. But local landlord groups have started fighting the idea, saying it would be prohibitively expensive to adapt buildings for new cooling measures.

During the Tuesday meeting’s public comment period, Jesus Rojas with the Apartment Association of Greater L.A. said air conditioning “can easily triple [a household’s] existing electricity bill, in addition to the cost of the AC units themselves."

“At a time when both mom-and-pop owners and renters are still struggling financially to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, this motion seems particularly callous and tone-deaf to the needs of L.A. County residents,” Rojas said.

County leaders are considering enacting the cooling measures as a public health requirement, meaning that the final rules would apply to most of L.A. County (excluding cities that maintain their own public health departments, such as Pasadena and Long Beach).

Phoenix and Las Vegas already mandate cool air 

Other lawmakers in California are exploring similar requirements. One proposal is being considered by the L.A. City Council. State lawmakers are expecting recommendations from the California Department of Housing and Community Development by Jan. 1, 2025.

Policy makers say cooling is an urgent concern in a state transformed by climate change. With temperatures steadily rising, state researchers have estimated that extreme heat could kill up to 4,300 Californians per year starting in 2025.

In a letter supporting L.A.’s plans, Jonathan Parfrey with the group Climate Resolve said many L.A. homes “are unprepared for extreme heat.”

If the county’s plans move forward, L.A. would not be the first part of the country to require air conditioning in apartments. Renters in cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas are covered by legal cooling standards.