Two of four contracts for eviction defense and tenant services were signed, with the remaining agreements in the process of being nearly finalized, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced Thursday.
Feldstein Soto released her second “Report In the Public Interest,” outlining the work her office is leading to finalize $177 million in contracts with four service providers, who lead “Stay Housed LA”. The joint city-county program, Stay Housed LA, provides funds to lawyers for eviction defense, rental assistance and tenant education.
As of Thursday, contracts with Strategic Actions for a Just Economy and Southern California Housing Rights Center have been finalized and signed, according to Feldstein Soto.
The new contract with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles is nearly finalized, and the contract with Liberty Hills is awaiting approval from the Los Angeles Housing Department.
“I am fully committed to supporting these crucial eviction defense services for our vulnerable neighbors in need. Questions remain, however, about how the grants of $90 million were spent during the first five years of this program,” Feldstein Soto said in a statement.
“Taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability and to know that their money is being used as intended — in this case, to protect vulnerable tenants at risk of unlawful evictions,” Feldstein Soto added.
Despite unanswered questions, at the direction of the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass, the City Attorney’s Office will finalize the new LAFLA contract while continuing to review prior funding.
In March, the City Council authorized the distribution of $177 million in Measure United to House LA revenue to Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Liberty Hill Foundation, Strategic Action For A Just Economy and Southern California Housing Rights Center.
Despite that approval and direction, Feldstein Soto did not finalize the contracts over reporting concerns.
In June, Feldstein Soto released her first public report on the matter, in which she described “challenges” the city faced in negotiating the contracts.
Feldstein Soto noted there was a strict requirement that all contract funding would terminate if the Legal Aid Foundation did not provide requested reporting by the council from 2021 through 2025 by April 15. The city attorney alleged the Legal Aid Foundation has refused to comply with reporting and oversight requirements under the contract.
Instead, LAFLA provided raw information and has redacted information such as ZIP codes and initials of individuals who registered for webinars and workshops, according to the City Attorney’s Office.
Feldstein Soto further alleged the organization has not produced any usable information on tenants who had been represented by a lawyer in court, in landlord negotiations or what the legal services of each such representation had cost the city.
In response, LAFLA officials maintained they have been negotiating in good faith over the last three months.
“LAFLA is shocked at the baseless misinformation the city attorney included in her so-called report,” Barbara Schultz, director of housing justice for the Legal Aid Foundation, wrote in an email on June 16 to City News Service.
“Stay Housed L.A. has also continued to provide services these last three months in the belief that the city attorney would act in good faith to negotiate and execute the contracts that the City Council already approved,” Schultz added.
Schultz also alleged that Feldstein Soto has spent the past year interfering in how the city delivers eviction protections.
“But this newest tactic is truly over the line,” Schultz wrote in her email to CNS. “She seems to be targeting LAFLA in what we believe is retaliation for our work defending clients who are holding the city accountable on building affordable housing and its homelessness response.”
Schultz maintained that the Legal Aid Foundation has delivered exceptional services and provided the records to prove it, such as detailed invoices with staff time, salary information, program expenditures, and more than 25 data points for each case, including outcomes for cases where the organizations represents tenants.
The foundation noted staff cannot provide confidential client information, just like any other legal services organization.
Feldstein Soto previously urged the council not to award the contract to the Legal Aid Foundation, raising concerns about allocating taxpayer dollars to organizations that have sued the city.
The Housing Department had 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 $42 million for the Southern California Housing Rights Center for its short-term emergency assistance initiative.
Money from Measure ULA — the so-called “mansion tax” — would be used to fund the organizations and their respective work.
Additional dollars from the Senate Bill 2 Permanent Local Housing Allocation Fund is expected to support the Southern California Housing Rights Center for the first year of the contract term. Subsequent years of the contract would require dollars from Measure ULA.