Posted on 10/01/2024
ONE BIG THING: CITY COUNCIL PASSES STRONGER TENANT HARASSMENT POLICY
What Happened?
City Council approved a motion this week that we seconded from Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Marqueece Harris-Dawson adding teeth to our city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance in 4 key ways:
1. Expanding the definition of harassment to include:
- Gross negligence and recklessness instead of requiring it to be willful and knowing harassment
- Threats to get rid of services that are part of your lease, like parking
- Threatening guests
- A landlord abusing their right of entry to a unit
2. Making it illegal for a landlord to refuse rental assistance or slow-walk paperwork to make it easier to evict a tenant.
3. Making cases easier to prosecute because victims can now hire private attorneys, thanks to new guarantees for compensation. Previously, cases were never prosecuted because City Attorneys weren’t assigned, and private attorneys had little incentive to take them on.
4. Increasing penalties for people found guilty of harassment.
Why it Matters
Since LA adopted an Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance in 2021, enforcement has been essentially nonexistent.
Our office constantly hears stories from renters who are harassed and abused for challenging illegal behavior with no recourse. This ordinance will give many tenants the changes they desperately need, so they can hire a lawyer and stay in their home.
What's Next?
The City Attorney must now prepare the ordinance (the actual law) for City Council to officially approve. This process usually takes a few months, so stay tuned for updates.
Two More Quick Hits!
1. Inside Safe in Historic Filipinotown
We housed 27 people at an Inside Safe in Historic Filipinotown at an encampment that had been growing since the pandemic across the street from a middle school.
This was our 16th Inside Safe operation in partnership with the Mayor’s office and trusted service providers, and we’ve now housed over 500 people through Inside Safe in District 13, plus hundreds of other people housed in our district by our Homelessness Team, LAHSA, service providers, and other government agencies.
2. Big Moves on Plastics Recycling
In a landmark action, California sued ExxonMobil this week at the state level for lying to the public for decades about the sustainability of plastics recycling.
Here in LA, City Council passed a motion from Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky that directs the Bureau of Sanitation to report on the status of the recycling market so we can improve our policies and practices at a local level.