Hugo Soto-Martinez

The Los Angeles City Council is considering ways to ensure renters are not evicted from their apartments after the city’s COVID-19 emergency declaration ends on Jan. 31.

The city’s moratorium on evictions is also currently scheduled to end on Jan. 31, prompting concerns that thousands of people will not be able to pay back rent and will end up homeless. Current rules in place will give renters who owe back rent a grace period of six to 12 months to pay. However, some members of the council including Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, 13th District, are seeking ways to potentially extend the eviction moratorium so renters have a longer period to prepare.

“If the eviction moratorium ends without implementing renter protections, we could see tens of thousands more people living on our streets,” Soto-Martinez said in a statement. “That’s why we’re fighting for common sense tenant protections so people can’t be kicked out of their homes for no reason, as well as a rent debt threshold so people don’t get evicted for being just one day late or one dollar short.”

The council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee met on Jan. 18 to consider a potential extension to the eviction moratorium and other ways to protect renters. The results of the committee meeting were not available by press time. The full City Council could consider extending the eviction moratorium again in the coming days.

An amendment proposed by Soto-Martinez to remove the eviction moratorium from an item on ending the COVID emergency declaration on Jan. 31 failed twice in City Council during the past two weeks. Councilwomen Katy Young Yaroslavsky, 5th District, Eunisses Hernandez, 1st District, and Heather Hutt, 10 District, have voiced support for extending the eviction moratorium. Councilwoman Nithya Raman, 4th District, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, has also sought more protections for renters. Raman’s office did not send a comment.

Council President Paul Krekorian, 2nd District, opposed the amendment that would have separated the eviction moratorium from the end of the emergency declaration. However, Krekorian said on Jan. 10 that he is open to considering an extension of the moratorium past Jan. 31 if a new item on renter protections is brought forward by the Housing and Homelessness Committee. He said he would agendize such an item as soon as possible for consideration before the eviction ends.

Nick Barnes Batista, a spokesman for Soto-Martinez, said the councilman is also hoping to establish a rent debt threshold for people who owe back rent so they aren’t evicted.

Soto-Martinez will be the guest speaker at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 State of Hollywood luncheon on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Taglyan Complex, 1201 N. Vine St.