In a unanimous vote, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has moved to extend a temporary moratorium on evictions for residential and commercial tenants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The eviction moratorium, enacted via executive order in March, was scheduled to expire on June 30. The vote by the Supervisors extends its protections through July 31.
"As the County remains under the declaration of a local health emergency, many residential and commercial tenants continue to suffer from income loss due to the economic repercussions of COVID-19," says a motion introduced by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. "Housing instability poses a severe threat to public health and safety as eviction from one's home can lead to families moving into overcrowded conditions or homelessness."
Under thetemporary moratorium, tenants are required to notify their landlord within seven days after their rent is due that they are unable to pay their rent. Tenants will have 12 months to pay back rent following the end of the moratorium period.
The policy affects all jurisdictions in Los Angeles County, with the exception of those that have adopted their own eviction moratoriums. For a list of those cities, click here.
The extension of the County restrictions come as similar protections are beginning to expire across the County, leading to predictions of "a tsunami of evictions."
Like Los Angeles County, many local cities have adopted their own eviction protections for those impacted by COVID-19. However, the efficacy of those measures has been called into question by a recent report from the Los Angeles Times.
An analysis of LAPD data by the Times found that in the City of Los Angeles, police have responded to over 290 instances of potentially illegal lockouts and utility shutoffs. The largest share of those cases occurred in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in South Los Angeles.
The extension of eviction protections comes as local elected officials continue to allow businesses to reopen as part of a phased recovery plan. However, health officials continue to announce new cases of COVID-19, with more than 3,000 deaths now attributed to the virus in Los Angeles County.
