With just one week left until pandemic-era eviction rules were set to expire, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend COVID-19 renter protections for another two months.
Low-income tenants across L.A. County who can’t pay rent due to hardships brought on by the pandemic were scheduled to lose eviction protections after Jan. 31. The expiration could have left an estimated 226,000 households in the region with past-due rent vulnerable to eviction if they couldn’t pay February rent on time.
The extension, approved Tuesday evening after a lengthy public comment period, will keep those pandemic-related eviction safeguards in place through March 31.
“For many individuals who are still struggling, homelessness is unfortunately a next potential step if we don’t take further action,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.
Supervisors Hilda Solis and Horvath had originally proposed extending the protections through June 30, but they reached a compromise with Supervisor Janice Hahn, who wanted to sunset the rules sooner. In the final vote, Horvath, Solis and Hahn voted in favor of the two-month extension. Supervisor Kathryn Barger voted against it, and Supervisor Holly Mitchell abstained.
Last-Minute Change In Plans
The extension represents an abrupt shift. County leaders had initially planned to end COVID-19 eviction protections after December 2022. But supervisors approved a one-month extension to the end of January 2023 due to a “respiratory illness trifecta” involving COVID-19, seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Hahn was reluctant to support an extension, saying, “There’s a sense, particularly…
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