On the County of Los Angeles’ Continued Extension of COVID-19 Protections

(Editor’s Note: This letter was sent to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in advance of its January 25, 2022, meeting.  The letter has been reprinted with permission of its author.)

Good Morning Comrades:

I know a little bit about Communism having immigrated to this country from the former Soviet Union, so I wish to address the “evils” of your proposed expansion and extension of the Eviction Moratorium mis-characterized as a “phase-out.”  A vote to extend the eviction moratorium will only result in:

1. Higher market rents as housing providers sell to owner occupants or take their rental units off market. Rental rates go up as supply goes down – it’s simply “Economics 101.”

2. Higher market rents as costs and risks to property owners increases from the County’s eviction moratorium.  In any industry, product producers and service providers simply pass on higher costs to consumers in order to survive.  Rental property owners provide the service of “housing.”

3. Stricter eligibility requirements for prospective renters. Many prospective renters will even qualify to rent housing whereas before they would.  Housing providers simply cannot take chances any longer these days because one “wrong” tenant selection will only cause an owner to spend significant amounts of money and incur months of time and stress recovering a rental unit from a “bad actor” renter.

4. Reducing Los Angeles County’s ability to generate new rental housing inventory because investment capital will be crossing County lines to seek more favorable property rights and better ability to enforce contracts.

5. Small business landlords, the “moms and pops,” will not be able to withstand what may become another year to a year and a half of imposed regulations.  Foreclosure moratoriums or the ability to seek a loan forbearance is over, and rental assistance is slow in coming, running out, and many of our residents do not qualify or take time to file an application.  Owners will likely lose their homes in addition to their rental properties because the County may choose to extend this severe financial burden of providing housing for free and its moratorium on evictions and increased rental rates.

6. Allowing renters to continue taking advantage of rental property owners by not paying rent.  There is no need to maintain these protections our economy growing, many job openings and growing demand for labor, wage increases – it is best time to be a worker. These past nearly 2-years, we have seen the largest stimulus to the bottom income brackets in the form of rental assistance, extended and increased unemployment benefits, stimulus payments, increased child tax credits, food stamps…and nearly 2-years of Eviction moratoriums and rent freezes.  Have you no decency let alone mercy Ms. Kuehl and Ms. Solis – you are, in effect, merely stealing our livelihoods and homes.

7. Lost property rights – So, what is property to me?  It represents someone’s sacrifice and investment. I worked hard for my money and sacrificed to invest in a rental property to house members of my community and provide for a stable retirement income.  At some point someone had to work and put in the blood, sweat, and tears into the to acquire rental property.  Now, effectively you have confiscated it – and in so doing, you are robbing others and me of our hard labor, sacrifice, and investment – we used to call that slavery.  You have ruined many people’s retirement dreams.

8. Taking of property in violation of the U.S. Constitution.  The British used to mandate civilians house their army in Colonial America – the Quartering Act.  We fought a Revolutionary War partly due to this. Ask Ms. Kuehl and Ms. Solis if they studied American history at some point in time in their lives. Then we Americans felt so strongly about protecting our home and property against government intrusion that we passed protections in the U.S. Constitution as the 3^rd Amendment – No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. There is also the 5^th Amendment’s takings clause – “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”  I do not see the “just cause” of continuing these so-called “interim” measures for what may turn out to be 3-years, nor did I understand the need to burden rental property owners with government’s responsibility in the first place.

9. Harming businesses.  Los Angeles County’s eviction moratorium on commercial property remains when there are no restrictions on businesses – I have to say that this is beyond any leftist dream rationalization.  Why a bad pizza restaurant, for example, that cannot make money under the best of circumstances is allowed to forgo paying rent to the building’s owner is beyond my comprehension.  Comrade Lenin would be proud of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

                           Vlad P., Los Angeles County