The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday approved the distribution of $177 million to four organizations for homeless prevention and eviction defense services after delaying the vote twice amid opposition from the City Attorney’s Office.
In a 12-1 vote, the City Council authorized the Los Angeles Housing Department to enter contracts with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Liberty Hill Foundation, Strategic Action For A Just Economy and Southern California Housing Rights Center — that are part of the Stay Housed LA program.
Councilman John Lee opposed the matter. Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez was absent during the vote and Councilman Curren Price recused himself as he is a landlord.
A representative for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, the City Council agreed to reschedule the vote after receiving an overnight communication from City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who warned the council against awarding the contract to LAFLA. She previously raised concerns about allocating taxpayer dollars to organizations that have sued the city.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and SAJE have previously lobbied the City Council for greater tenant protections. Last month, Shayla Myers, a lead attorney for LAFLA, won a court ruling that blocked Los Angeles from implementing plans to remove inoperable RVs from city streets.
LAFLA and SAJE have joined lawsuits challenging the city’s homelessness policies.
Representatives for the organizations have said that funding they receive from the city only supports tenant rights and eviction defense services.
“At a time when 92% of landlords in eviction cases have attorneys compared to 14% of renters, Stay Housed LA (SHLA) has helped even the playing field, reducing both the human and shared financial costs of homelessness,” Barbara Schultz, director of housing justice for LAFLA, said in a statement.
LAFLA’s work through Stay Housed LA has provided legal assistance to 24,000 LA tenants, including about 6,000 who were represented in court, according to Schultz. Additionally, LAFLA touted a 94% success rate with 55% of tenants remaining in their homes and about 39% of tenants receiving favorable settlements.
“Our coalition includes organizations that defend low-income renters and people experiencing homelessness in ways that include litigation against municipalities and other large organizations,” Schultz said in a statement. “The lived experience of the people we serve and the expertise of our service providers is part of what qualifies us as strong advocates on these issues. There’s no reason that contracting for a vital city service should ever compromise or limit an individual or group’s ability to hold their government accountable.”
Councilman Lee said he voted against the funding because he did not believe “the level of transparency and accountability the City should require when distributing public funds has been met.”
He urged his colleagues to ensure any organizations seeking contracts provide clear information about fund management and service outcomes.
“I support efforts that help keep people housed and prevent homelessness. But support for these programs must go hand in hand with responsible oversight and transparency. I cannot support contracts that do not meet that standard,” Lee said in his statement.
Schultz maintained that LAFLA has consistently provided “anonymized detailed data” on the individual case level to the city, without compromising client identities, along with detailed invoicing.
“SHLA has never refused to provide any data or invoicing information requested by the Los Angeles Housing Department,” Schultz said in a statement.
Money from Measure United to House LA, also referred to as the “mansion tax,” will be used to fund the organizations and their respective work. The 2022 voter-approved measure placed a 4% transfer tax on the sale of properties between $5 million and $10 million, and a 5.5% transfer tax on the sale of properties higher than $10 million.
Measure ULA has raised more than $1 billion since it was approved, according to data from the LA Housing Department.
The Housing Department requested the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass to authorize a nearly $107 million contract with LAFLA for eviction defense and prevention, about $22 million for Liberty Hill Foundation for tenant outreach and education services, some $7 million for Strategic Action For a Just Economy for outreach and education regarding the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, and to allocate $42 million for the Southern California Housing Rights Center for its short-term emergency assistance initiative.
Additional dollars from Senate Bill 2 Permanent Local Housing Allocation Fund is expected to support Southern California Housing Rights Center for the first year of the contract term. Subsequent years of the contract would require dollars from Measure ULA.
The city began its eviction defense program on July 1, 2021, to create stability and ensure residents can remain housed. The same year, the city entered a contract with LAFLA, which has cost a total of $90.8 million over the course of five years. It’s expected to expire on March 31.
The subsequent contract, approved Tuesday, is expected to expire on June 30, 2027.
“Stay Housed LA provides free legal support for vulnerable tenants and is a proven and effective tool to stop the eviction-to-homelessness pipeline. In a moment when families are already under enormous pressure, the city finally decided to act and voted yes to a contract that will prevent people from losing their homes,” Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez said in a statement.
However, critics argue the city should not be contracting with organizations that have publicly expressed contrary positions to the city’s policies and interests.
Tenants and housing advocates described the Stay Housed LA program and the various services associated with it as a lifeline for many of them.