LA City Council tables tenant protection proposal, including 1-year freeze on rent increases​on January 30, 2025 at 7:57 am

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — The Los Angeles City Council sent a package of tenant protections back to committee today, including a proposal for a one-year freeze on rent increases, following a heated debate that left several members concerned about the possible unintended consequences of enacting such a policy.

In a 10-3 vote, council members agreed to refer the item to the Housing and Homelessness Committee so it could be refined after five amendments were introduced on the floor.

Council members Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado voted against the call to postpone the matter any further. Councilman Curren Price recused himself since he is a landlord and Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez was absent during the vote.

The original motion — introduced by Soto-Martinez, Hernandez and Councilman Adrin Nazarian — called for the city attorney to draft an ordinance prohibiting certain types of evictions for impacted fire victims and implement a rent-hike moratorium through Jan. 31, 2026, for all apartments in the city.

Councilman John Lee described the proposal as a “blanket policy” that would further complicate the city’s housing crisis by placing burdens on landlords.

Councilman Bob Blumenfield agreed with some of Lee’s concerns, adding the city has and will take action to support fire survivors, as evident by the activation of the Economic and Workforce Development’s WorkSource Centers, among other things. He said the city will examine whether it can allocate funds from ULA, a 2022 voter-approved property transfer tax, to provide rental assistance for residents impacted by the recent wildfires.

Several council members worried about possible consequences of enacting a rent-hike freeze, a move previously undertaken during the coronavirus pandemic.

“With COVID … we needed to do this and it was difficult for housing providers,” Blumenfield said. Where is that threshold between the COVID emergency and an emergency like this, which is very serious, and the folks who are affected? We need to do everything we can to help them, but whether it
really is justified to do this kind of a harsh market impact — I don’t see the evidence of it.”

Soto-Martinez defended his proposal and emphasized that it is intended to help the people who have had economic hardship or have lost their jobs due to the fires.” He denied that it was an eviction moratorium, but rather said the policy would be an “eviction defense.”

Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, argued against the proposal. She said the City Council has already approved emergency measures to support victims of the Palisades Fire — most recently prohibiting evictions in households that have taken in unauthorized pets or occupants
displaced by the fires, which will be in effect for one year.

The city has rent stabilization laws, just-cause eviction protections for non-payment of rent due to economic hardships and other measures in place, she added.

“If this motion is really about freezing the next RSO rent increase rather than protecting a small universe of workers then I can’t support the policy or derivative uses that is using a disaster in my district as a pretext for some other political agenda,” Park said.

Hernandez quickly defended the proposal and said she took great offense to Park’s remarks.

“I have people in my district who are gardeners, the nannies, the housekeepers, who are undocumented, who’ve lost everything, who can’t just walk into a restaurant and get another job,” Hernandez said.

“The crisis is in your district, but it reverberates across the 15 districts of the city. It is not a political agenda. I’m talking about people … that are going to lose everything too,” she added.

The council did not vote on any of the amendments and referred them to committee as well — including one that came from the original authors, which would have rescinded the call for the one-year rent-hike pause. The proposal is anticipated to evolve as elected officials explore the best way to help victims of the fires.

The decision came after council members heard more than three hours of public comment from frustrated landlords who described the proposal as an “overreach of policy,” while multiple tenants urged the council to approve it as originally written.

David Kaishchyan of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles argued against the rent-hike freeze and eviction moratorium, arguing that it would create mountains of unpaid back rent.”

Carlos Singer, chief of policy for the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, said the proposal would discourage investors from developing in the city during a time when Los Angeles needs to draw on historic amounts of money to finance rebuilding efforts.

Tenant and housing advocate groups such as Strategic Actions for a Just Economy and ACCE, among others, supported the protections.

“Tenants were already struggling to pay rent, saddled with rent debt and one missed paycheck away from losing their homes,” said Christina Boyer, an attorney with Public Counsel and a member of Keep LA Housed. “The fires have only made this dire situation worse and people have a real risk of losing
their houses.”

In their motion, Hernandez, Soto-Martinez and Nazarian said Los Angeles would experience what they described as a consistent pattern” that emerges in the aftermath of disasters such as what was seen in Lahaina, Hawaii, where the median rent surged 44% in the year after the 2023 Hawaii wildfires.

In three surrounding counties of Paradise, California, rental prices jumped 20.1% in the two years after the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, they said.

“California (law) outlaws rental increases of greater than 10%, but sunsets 30 days after the declaration of the state of emergency, allowing an opportunity for unscrupulous landlords to simply wait and then initiate unaffordable rental increases,” the motion reads.

In their motion, elected officials say Los Angeles is already seeing “predatory” behavior from some property owners as rental prices allegedly jumped on Zillow between 15% and 64%.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution on Jan. 21 that enacted eviction protections for renters who opened their homes to people or pets displaced by the wildfires. It also promoted increased short-term rental availability.

Tenants in the unincorporated areas of the county are protected against eviction when hosting unauthorized occupants or pets displaced by the fires until May 31, 2026.