Background of the Proposed Eviction Defense Program (EDP) 

On August 17, 2018, the City Council directed HCIDLA to work with the Office of the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) and the City Attorney to develop recommendations, including prospective costs and funding sources, for a City of Los Angeles “Right to Counsel” ordinance and/or a program to ensure that tenants have access to the information and representation when facing landlord harassment, rental agreement and lease issues, and eviction. 

For nearly the past two years, HCIDLA has conducted extensive research and held numerous meetings with various stakeholders (i.e., Right to Counsel Coalition members), including working closely with the Mayor’s Office, L.A. County, City Council offices, the CLA, the Office of the City Administrative Officer (CAO) and the City Attorney’s Office.  At the conclusion of the City budget, an allocation of $2,937,000 was approved to fund the initial phase of the EDP program.  During this time as well, the State passed AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019: Rent Cap law that became effective in late Summer 2019. AB 1482, due to its urgent and timing provisions had a direct impact on the funding originally planned for the EDP.  HCIDLA staff continued to work on the EDP framework and report back to City Council and officially transmitted its report to Council on November 1, 2019.  The report was heard on December 10, 2019 at a special joint meeting of the Housing Committee and Personnel and Animal Welfare (PAW) Committee.  Given the recent and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacts in 2020, HCIDLA has continued to work with the Mayor’s Office and City Council offices to identify funding to implement a citywide Eviction Defense Program.  The City Council adoption of the EDP is pending at this time. 

Overview of the Proposed EDP Framework

• Education and public awareness (for landlords and tenants)

• • HCIDLA to conduct a comprehensive “Know Your Rights Campaign” for tenants, particularly the most vulnerable of eviction;
  • HCIDLA to provide targeted education to landlords, particularly small operators that may require more direct assistance from the City to prevent the issuance of illegal Unlawful Detainers (UDs) and three-day notices;
  • Outreach efforts to be closely coordinated through HCIDLA and leverage L.A. City resources and sites; and
  • HCIDLA and contracted service providers will also work together to identify landlords that continually engage in illegal practices and proactively conduct outreach to tenants living in at-risk buildings.

• Eviction prevention interventions (for landlords and tenants)

• • Tenants with an eviction or anticipate a three-day notice will be able to access services and/or referrals at a variety of entry points including HCIDLA offices, the HCIDLA hotline, the office of legal service providers/community organizations, and through designated tenant clinics;
  • Serve 80% AMI or below – income requirement to receive services

• • • Assistance filing and monitoring complaints (RSO, code enforcement, and fair housing); legal assistance negotiating agreements with a landlord;
    • Assistance responding to a three-day notice;
    • Tenant Stability Planning – including financial coaching (administered by the Family Source Centers, and described in greater detail below); and
    • Emergency or ongoing-rental assistance
  • Legal service providers will be asked to provide, as necessary, referrals to landlords that may need legal assistance or representation to resources such as the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

• Full-scope representation for eligible tenants in eviction proceedings

• • Income eligible tenants who have received an Unlawful Detainer (UD) would be able to access full-scope legal representation. Legal service attorneys would represent impacted tenants throughout the pre-eviction and eviction process – in settlement negotiations through trial, if necessary. Tenants living in subsidized housing would also have access to full-scope legal representation for other cases such as administrative hearings.

• Rental assistance

• • Emergency rental assistance that is needed to prevent or resolve an eviction will be administered by legal services providers and consist of a negotiated one-time payment to pause or stop the eviction process;
  • Rental assistance is defined as: funding to cover the whole or part of the cost of rental arrears and regular rental payments for a time-limited period, which must be paid directly to the landlord, not the tenant; and
  • Tenants will be eligible for rental assistance at any stage of the eviction process (i.e., before a notice, after a notice, and after a UD).

• Ongoing support services for tenant stability

• • The City’s Family Source Centers (FSCs) to provide a myriad of ongoing services to ensure tenant stability, to include, but not limited to the following: case management services (including financial coaching) with the legal service provision, ongoing rental assistance (for up to three months), and supportive services.

• Evaluation

• • Data collection and evaluation is to (1) Inform policy implementation and targeting of efforts; (2) Assess program effectiveness and outcomes of interventions; and (3) Identify best practices (e.g., clinics, reasonable accommodations, etc.) and make necessary adjustments to the program as needed.
  • As access to resources increases, HCIDLA will contract with a qualified program evaluation consultant and work collectively with an advisory committee to review program evaluation reports and develop recommendations.

• Eviction filing system and data collection

• • To effectively track and monitor evictions and assist in the assessment of the efficacy of the program, landlords are required to file a notification for all evictions within the City. HCIDLA is to design a city-wide system to collect, monitor and report on the data, which will provide valuable insight on the frequency, location and reason for evictions.
  • This new filing notification will enable the City to accurately track the number of eviction related filings in the city as well as provide vital information for purposes of program implementation, scale up, budget, program adjustments, etc.

HCIDLA’s PP& R Unit will update this page after the City Council adopts the EDP program. We will provide more details on the program implementation process and other program components at a later time.