The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, Dec. 12, requested that the city attorney draft two ordinances to provide additional protections to renters – one that would provide qualifying tenants with legal representation in eviction cases, and another that would allow tenants to keep pets they brought home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neither proposal will become official unless the City Council adopts the ordinances, which are expected to come before the council some time in 2024.
The latest proposals come as tenant rights advocates point to an uptick in evictions due to the end of several COVID-era protections for renters in the past year, and other tenant protections expiring soon.
The first proposal calls on the city to provide legal representation for tenants who earn no more than 80% of the area’s median income and who are facing eviction or the loss of their housing subsidies. The second proposal instructs the city attorney to draft an ordinance requiring landlords and building managers to allow “any companion animal” brought home during the pandemic to remain there.
The request for a right-to-counsel ordinance represents the next step in an effort first introduced by Councilmember Nithya Raman in February, with several other council members signing on. The ordinance would make permanent a city eviction defense program and ensure that low-income tenants facing eviction who can’t afford an attorney will be provided legal services.
“We’ve been very supportive of implementing the right-to-counsel (ordinance) as a body these past few months, and I’m really excited to continue moving this forward … and look forward to seeing this ordinance be implemented,” Raman said before the council voted 12-0 to ask the city attorney to draft the ordinance.
The city’s housing department recommended that the right-to-counsel program be phased in over five years, with priority given to residents in zip codes identified as having the most number of…
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