LA's eviction moratorium analysis: “Equitable” city meddling harms landlords/tenants

As Los Angeles' Covid-era eviction moratorium draws to a close, tenants struggle to pay heaping rent bills accumulated from up to 1.5 years. Meanwhile, landlords are on tenterhooks waiting to get reimbursed for long-standing maintenance, tax, and insurance expenses. The Globe's Evan Symon asks the only sensible question for CA'n lawmakers: Who's winning in this situation?

While the city’s Housing and Homelessness Committee will vote on funding to help alleviate any upcoming evictions, including $18.4 million for eligible households to apply for up to six months of any owed back rent and millions more for legal services and community groups, others in the city feel that the time to pay back rent is long overdue.

“Some of us have had tenants who didn’t pay a dime between March 2020 and January of this year,” LA landlord Wilmer Lee told the Globe. “Others have years worth. Many, like me, have blocks of months that we’re still owed. In total for me, its five figures, as I have several properties. And, contrary to popular belief, rent doesn’t go all into my back pocket. There is maintenance, odd utilities, landscaping, city taxes, property taxes, insurance, and a lot more. If we aren’t making that through rent, that is out of pocket right there, or we cut back on things for the property.”

“Landlords have a certain reputation, but in the end, it is a business of sorts. A lot of smaller landlords have been hurt the most, and many have this as income, or in many cases, this is their retirement. The city held this off way too much, and now they’re trying to stop all the negative effects of their own doing. COVID was a hard time, but instead of trying to work with tenants, LA just gave the no pay option, and many took it. Now, with it due, they are worried about homelessness coming about because of this. They didn’t look at more sensible options, and now the price is being paid.”

This article originally appeared in the California Globe. Read the whole thing here.

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