The county Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance Tuesday that will make it harder for tenants in unincorporated areas to be evicted, by requiring that renters be at least two months behind in fair market rent before landlords can begin eviction proceedings.
The current county eviction threshold is one month.
“I understand that with this proposal, I am going to face pushback from both sides — tenants advocates who don’t believe I am doing enough, and landlords who think I have gone too far,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who introduced the motion, said in a statement after the board in February directed staff to draft the ordinance. “This is a modest but necessary increase. With this additional month, I hope we can give families some breathing room while not putting the entire burden on landlords who depend on rental income to pay their own bills.”
The ordinance amends the Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance enacted in 2022 in an effort to reduce homelessness.
Hahn and motion co-author Hilda Solis noted that financial pressure on tenants has increased in recent months in part due to sweeping federal immigration enforcement efforts that have discouraged some people from going to work, and harmed businesses that have lost customers and workers.
Some tenants’ rights activists, including members of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, have been pressing the board to do more than enacting a two-month threshold, pushing for a three-month threshold that would be in effect for renters not just in unincorporated areas, but also within cities in the county.
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath introduced a motion last month that would have taken those extra steps, but it failed to gain any traction with other members of the board. So the original proposal of a two-month threshold went before the board Tuesday.
The board approved the measure on a 4-1 vote without discussion, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger opposing. She has previously expressed concerns about the impacts rising tenant protections have on landlords — particularly smaller “mom-and-pop” building owners — who could be left unable to pay their mortgages due to an inability to collect rent from tenants.
“My `no’ vote reflects my belief that local governments should not balance renters’ economic hardships on the backs of landlords,” Barger said in a statement to City News Service after the vote. “We have an affordability crisis not just in Los Angeles County — it’s statewide. Doing so will disenfranchise small mom-and-pop property owners who depend on rental properties for their retirement and to make ends meet. It’s not fair to them, especially as they grapple with their own economic woes. Inflation is real. Further burdening property owners who also have bills to pay — such as rising homeowners insurance — and are struggling to keep up with costs is unbalanced and the wrong approach.”
The current fair market rent in the county is considered $2,085 per month for a one-bedroom unit, and $2,601 for two bedrooms.