ACT NOW! Los Angeles City Council Will Vote on End of City’s Moratoriums Tomorrow, October 4th
MEETING INFORMATION |
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DATE: Tuesday,October 4, 2022
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TIME: While the meeting starts at 10:00A.M., please be at City Hall by 8:00A.M. to ensure that you are able to get into the meeting. |
Location: John Ferraro Council Chambers
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AGENDA |
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Eviction Moratorium to Potentially End on January 31, 2023
Rent Increases Freeze May Remain In Place Until January 31, 2024 --Additional 12 Months Beyond the Eviction Moratorium!
On Tuesday, October 4th, the Los Angeles City Council will be considering recently approved recommendations from the City's Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19 Recovery and Neighborhood Investment for ending the City’s moratoriums on evictions and rent increases, and voting on the specific dates for the end of the eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze, Agenda Item 13/ Council File 21-0042-S3.
To review the full details of the Ad Hoc Committee Report and recommendations, please click on the button below:
REPORT
What You Need to Know:
While the Committee’s recommendations call for the end of the City’s eviction moratorium on January 31, 2023, with some exceptions, the rent increase freeze would remain in place for another year, into 2024! The City’s eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze must end now!
City Council will also vote on recommendations that call for permanent housing policy changes including directing the City Attorney to draft an ordinance to be implemented on or before January 31, 2023, expanding the City’s “Just Cause” eviction requirements to non-RSO units inclusive of imposing relocation fees, and numerous reports on a range of other issues. Any permanent housing policies must only be considered separately after thoughtful analysis and meaningful stakeholder feedback and not be combined with the termination of the emergency actions put in place temporarily.
What You Must Do to Help End the MoratoriumsDo YOU Own Rental Property in the City of Los Angeles? Call and Email the Los Angeles Councilmembers TODAY!
Your participation IN PERSON at the City Council meeting is VITAL! |
Let the City Council know:
- Small business rental housing providers are already reeling from nearly three years of challenging rent collections, prohibitions on rent increases, and enormous increases in building and operational costs which continue to rise during this hyperinflationary period. Simultaneously, over the last two years, City rates and fees including for the Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP), RecycLA, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have also significantly increased.
- Continuation of the moratoriums will force even more small business rental housing providers to remove their buildings from the rental market or to exit the rental housing business. Buildings are already being removed from the rental market or sold to developers or corporate owners who turn these older buildings that make-up the bulk of the City’s “naturally occurring affordable housing” into condominiums or luxury rental units. The already scarce affordable rental housing will soon be gone, a situation that harms entire communities.
- Only rental housing providers remain subject to these expansive COVID measures – no other businesses have been subjected to prohibitions that freeze prices, limit legal remedies for pursuing revenue collections or interfere with contractual agreements.
- These emergency measures were imposed during an unprecedented emergency and put in place to address tremendous public health and safety concerns. Over the past almost three years, we have gained a better understanding of COVID-19, a vaccine and a booster are readily available, schools have re-opened, business sectors are back to normal operations, and individuals are working and/or have new employment opportunities, and there has been mass attendance at large scale events such as this year’s Superbowl. All of these changes reflect the vast difference in our lives today as compared to 2020 when the pandemic began, and these emergency measures were imposed.
- Nearly all of other jurisdictions across the Country have lifted similar moratoriums. It is long overdue for the City to seek an equitable path forward by bringing an immediate end to the moratoriums.
- The City’s rent increase freeze and eviction moratorium must end Now!
- Los Angeles County is ending their moratoriums this year, the City must do the same!
- NOW is the time for the Rental Housing Industry, like all other businesses, to be allowed to resume normal business operations.
- These moratoriums were intended as temporary emergency measures in response to an unprecedented event and must not be used as the impetus to hastily advance permanent, restrictive housing policies without thoughtful deliberation.
Share your personal experiences and hardships these past two-plus years, and the impacts you have suffered under the City’s eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze.
Below is a sample letter you may use as an example to send a letter to the City of Los Angeles’s Councilmembers. Please make sure to modify the letter to best explain your own personal experiences and hardships these past two-plus years, and the impacts you have suffered under the City’s eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze.
Sample LetterDear Honorable Los Angeles City Council Members: I am a housing provider in the City of Los Angeles. It is time for the City’s moratoriums on evictions and rent increases to end. These emergency measures were put in place well over two years ago in response to serious public health and safety concerns that no longer exist. Since that time, we have overcome the urgency of the health crisis through the wide availability of a vaccine and booster shot, and as a result, we have seen the reopening of the economy with businesses of all types resuming normal operations except for the rental housing industry. The emergency measures imposed upon the City’s housing providers have gone well beyond their intended purpose. Rental housing providers must be permitted to resume normal operations this year. Nearly all jurisdictions across the nation have recognized the advancements made in understanding and addressing COVID-19 and have ended similar emergency measures. Los Angeles County will be ending its moratoriums on evictions and rent increases this year, the City of Los Angeles must do the same. Both the eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze must end immediately. As a responsible small business rental housing provider, I have faced tremendous financial hardships during the last over two years caused by the City’s temporary emergency measures and skyrocketing building and operational costs which continue to rise. I have also struggled to pay numerous, significant City rate and fee increases over the last few years, including, water, trash hauling and SCEP inspection fees. I am aware of small business rental housing providers that have already started to sell their buildings which will make the availability of affordable housing even more limited and entire communities will be harmed. It is time to end these temporary emergency measures. The City must also thoughtfully consider all permanent housing policies and should not use the unprecedented events of the COVID-19 pandemic to hastily advance permanent regulations that will negatively impact the City’s affordable housing. Thank you for your consideration. |
Click the button below to email your written letter to ALL Los Angeles City's Councilmembers:
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**Additional Meeting Information
**Please be at City Hall as early as possible, by 8:00A.M, to ensure that you have time to get through security and in the queue to provide public comment during the meeting.
City Hall opens at 8:00A.M. and Council Chambers will be open at 9:30A.M.
To enter City Hall you must bring proof of full Covid-19 vaccination or of a negative Covid-19 test within the prior 72 hours. (Proof of a negative test requires a printed document, email, or text message displayed on a phone from a test provider or laboratory showing the results of a PCR or antigen Covid-19 test) and you are also required to wear a mask.
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