Los Angeles officials said on Monday that a rise in homelessness in the city is expected in August, with the looming August 1st deadline for tenants to pay all back rent owed from March 2020 through September 2021. Citywide eviction protections were in place against evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but are coming due.
The back rent issue has been one of the most contentious in the city for years. Since 2020, landlords have fought hard against the city eviction moratorium, saying that it put an undue burden on them and that they have been financially struggling to pay mortgages and other expenses due to no money coming in from renters who can’t be removed. Housing groups, aided by statistics showing that homelessness in LA would significantly jump up as a result, including state statistics showing that 101,000 households had rent relief funding during the pandemic in LA alone, prevailed in fighting off attempts in ending the moratorium during the last few years, including in court.
The City Council kept extending the moratorium every several months. However, severely declining COVID-19 rates in LA, as well as President Joe Biden declaring the pandemic over in September 2022, brought forth a new effort to finally pin down an end date for the eviction moratorium. At the same time, previous housing committee meetings that fought tooth and nail finally started reaching understandings on a sunset date. Finally, City Council agreed to a moratorium end date of January 31, 2023, ending the nearly three year long moratorium.
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