TITLE
Recommendation to receive and file a presentation on the Right to Counsel Program for Tenant Evictions, data on the number and characteristics of Long Beach residents served by the program to date, and emerging trends and community needs regarding evictions in the City of Long Beach since the expiration of LA County’s moratorium on evictions.
DISCUSSION
Since 2021, the City of Long Beach has maintained a contract agreement with the County of Los Angeles and the nonprofit organization Stay Housed LA to support their Right to Counsel program, which provides counsel for tenant evictions for low-income residents who have experienced financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Managed by the county in partnership with Stay Housed LA, the City’s contract provides funding to address tenant issues in Long Beach, playing a critical role in homelessness prevention for at-risk residents.
Early in the pandemic, there were overlapping tenant evictions moratoria at the local, county and state levels to protect low-income tenants from no-fault evictions and harassment for nonpayment of rent. While the state evictions moratorium largely took precedence over local ordinances, after two years and multiple extensions, the state’s moratorium expired on June 30, 2022.
Meanwhile, LA County’s moratorium continued to provide tenant protections and moved to expand to all unincorporated areas of the county and cities that did not have a local moratorium, including Long Beach. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors again extended aspects of the County’s evictions moratorium for an additional two months. The County’s moratorium officially expired on March 31, 2023, marking the end of the remaining pandemic eviction protections still available.
As a proactive step to support homelessness prevention, the City allocated a one-time funding of $200,000 at the end of March from the City’s emergency funds for homeless prevention, permissible under the City’...
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