City Council addressed the future of eviction moratoria and the utilization of West Hollywood emergency funds in response to COVID-19 at their meeting this week.
The moratorium on commercial and residential leases is set to expire Sept. 30. Neither the state nor the county are expected to extend the protections granted to commercial and residential renters since the start of the pandemic last year.
Fearing that the Delta variant was still a threat to the stability of WeHo residents, City Council decided to extend protections permitted by state law through the end of January 2022, which includes a moratorium on no-fault evictions.
West Hollywood has an eviction moratorium in place protecting commercial tenants from eviction for failure to pay rent due to financial impacts related to COVID-19 through September 30, 2021, effectively deferring payment of rent during the current commercial eviction moratorium period. The commercial moratorium was left unchanged.
According to the staff report:
Continuing the Eviction Prevention and Defense Program will allow more West Hollywood residents access to intervention services and legal representation so that tenants can ascertain their rights and responsibilities to prevent unnecessary displacement. This program is beneficial to both landlords and tenants so that all parties can communicate effectively about their respective rights and obligations.
From March 16 to September 30, 2020, the City’s local eviction protections applied to tenants who were unable to pay rent due to COVID. To prevent a wave of evictions and piecemeal regulations throughout the state, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3088 (AB 3088) on August 31, 2020. The bill enacted the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020 to provide statewide eviction protections for residential tenants experiencing a financial hardship relating to COVID-19. Thus, beginning October 1, 2020, the state eviction protection rules took over in West Hollywood. Since then, the state’s residential eviction moratorium has been amended three times, including two extensions, and renamed the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act.
To date, the City has allocated $4 million in emergency funding for services related to the pandemic; of this, 62% has been directed towards the provision of social services.
It needs to be explained that the moratorium, for rental eviction expires Sept 30. No fault evictions are extend to jan 3. NOT RENT EVICTIONS. If you owe rent due to covid, no matter how much, it will be paid 100% and up to 18 months in future rent. The application is at Housing is key. It takes 15-20 minutes. If you apply for this and have proof, your landlord may have trouble evicting you because of rent owed. My advice is to do it right now. Get a case number and be safe. The city also offers up to… Read more »
january 31 not 3 sorry typo
You made some excellent points that should be added to the article. A few hyperlinks to the city’s website on the eviction moratorium extension would knock it out of the park❗⚾
What are the links to both websites? Thank you!
This is GREAT news for the drug/sex/attention/manipulation addict in my building who should have been evicted since before covid but now gets ANOTHER pass while the rest of us have been paying our rent in full for years.
So True, poor landlords still have the pay the banks or loose their properties.
You think that’s bad❓ Though there are valid Medical reasons to avoid recreational drug use, I’ve PAID my rent on time all the time and find myself completely missing out of my share of sex/attention/manipulation❗
The moratorium only covers NO FAULT evictions, ie. people who have done nothing wrong. If someone is committing a crime or endangering the health and welfare of others, they can still be evicted for cause. They can also be arrested.
Anyone wishing to get a job in LA……can find one in 30 minutes.
Anyone over seven feet tall has an excellent chance at college and professional basketball❗🏀
Always the idiotic response.
I am glad the city council decided on this extension of the rental moratorium.There is still a lot of certainty due to the new COVID Delta variant that is present in the population.You don’t know what the future will bring.
West Hollywood is showing that it can lead the way in the response to this awful virus.Thank goodness the city council came together and voted for the extension. I hope other cities will take note and follow its example.
I agree. The West Hollywood City Council has shown time and again that they care for those who are at risk as well as businesses and the general well being of the community.
Despite at lot of noise and drama, the City Council gets things done.