City of Los Angeles Approves Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP) Fee Increase

At the May 19th City Council meeting, the Council approved major increases to the SCEP fee. The fee increase institutes a mid-year fee adjustment of $24.62 per unit to be invoiced in June 2021, and to be paid entirely by rental housing providers. In addition, the current annual fee of $43.32 per unit will be increased to $67.94 per unit on January 1, 2022, with an allowable 50% pass through to renters prorated by 1/12th on a monthly basis. Previously, housing providers were permitted to pass through 100% of the annual SCEP fee to renters on a monthly basis.

The Association strongly opposed the SCEP fee increase especially at a time when City rental housing providers have been subject to a more than yearlong local eviction moratorium and rent increase freeze, have collected little, if any, rent and are depleting savings and borrowing money to maintain building operations.

At the previous April 14th Housing Committee meeting, where the increase had been initially discussed and advanced, we strongly urged the Committee to direct that a comprehensive programmatic evaluation and the advancement of cost-effective solutions be conducted prior to consideration of any fee increase. We believe that the City can maintain a robust program that is also cost effective and as the program was established 20 years ago and has a 95% compliance rate, a program evaluation is long overdue.

Due to our advocacy efforts, the Committee directed the City’s Housing and Community Investment Department (HCID+LA) to consult with community stakeholders to conduct an evaluation of the SCEP program and identify strategies to restructure the program to achieve cost savings and effective delivery of services. In addition, the Committee directed HCID+LA to work with the City Administrative Officer (CAO) to identify federal resources that may offset program costs and provide relief to rental housing providers and renters. It is our hope that this programmatic evaluation will serve to provide cost savings resulting in overall lower fees in the long term.