A county ordinance making it harder for tenants in unincorporated areas to be evicted took effect Thursday, requiring that renters be at least two months behind in fair market rent before landlords can attempt to remove them.
The previous county eviction threshold was one month.
“This is a modest but necessary increase,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-sponsored the motion, said in a statement after the Board of Supervisors approved the revision last month. “With this additional month, I hope we can give renters some breathing room while not putting the entire burden on landlords who also depend on rental income to pay their own bills.”
The ordinance amended 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.
“In the face of inhumane federal actions and ongoing threats to immigrant families, the county has taken concrete steps to protect renters,” Solis said in a statement. “These are not symbolic gestures, but real action that meets the needs of those impacted. Raising the threshold to two months provides important protection against eviction while recognizing that many renters will still have to pay back unpaid rent to their landlords.”
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 in February that would have taken those extra steps, but it failed to gain any traction with other members of the board.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger was the only board member to oppose increasing the eviction threshold to two months.
“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 last month. “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.