'Flood of evictions' looms in Los Angeles as pandemic tenant protections expire

Since 2019, the mother and 2 daughters in the story were essentially homeless and were hopping around from couch to couch among friends and family because they could no longer afford their rent in Los Angeles. In October 2020, the Los Angeles Transitional Housing program placed them in an El Sereno home. The family knew it was temporary and knew the placement was only good for 2 years. That 2 years is now over. So the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles gave the mother other options for housing and is willing to help her move. However, the mother is refusing because it is not where she wants to move to. Fuck that. They were given options, but she doesn't like those options and is refusing to move and is now contesting the eviction. Sucks for the 2 daughters, but we as taxpayers do not owe her anything. We offered her help, but she is refusing that help as she wants something better.

I’m very liberal, but the pandemic has been effectively over since 2021 when people were forced back into the office. The issues at hand are not covid related anymore. Instead, they are representative of the economic inequality that pervades the system.

if you don't have to pay rent for almost 3 years would you not then be saving that money so that when the moratorium ends you are able to pay your rent. This is not a surprise to anyone we all knew that the eviction moratorium would end at some point. I would think that rent free for 3 years would help most get ahead on bills. Wasn't that the point?

Weren't these people the crazy squatters who stayed in the empty condemned 710 Freeway homes?

I swear--if someone can't afford LA, move somewhere affordable. People need to get off their high horse and see there are good cities nationwide for less.

I met someone the other day who works with the L.A. County Council for the Homeless, and she said something so interesting: that homelessness is actually the result of a series of OTHER systemic failures.

One, for example, is the fact that after someone is released from prison, they often can't find anywhere to live (if their mother, for example, lives in section 8 housing, they can't move in with her by law); this affects their ability to work and find a job; and so because of the failure of THE TRANSITION SYSTEM and THE PRISON SYSTEM, they end up homeless.

Another is what's about to happen here, and she cited this as another example: once people are evicted, they're on a journey through a predictable pattern: bunking in with family, then when the family can't take it any more, couchsurfing, then when friends get tired, moving into a motel, then the car, and then they lose the car bc they have no job, and thus end up homeless.

So, this, too, is another systemic failure, a failure of the EVICTION SYSTEM (and also that we have a TERRIBLE SHORTAGE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING here)-- problems that we should be working hard to find a solution to, because it will lead to an increased surge of homelessness about a year from now.

Many, many, MANY People are working on these problems, I want to make it clear. But they are deep and systemic.

And lastly--this is a failure of our PUBLIC HEALTH system, because COVID is very much NOT over, in fact L.A. is heading into another winter surge, and a nasty one, too. What can we do? Well, we can pick one of these issues and try to find a way to help.

Lastly, we can also mask up and get the bivalent vaccine, at least, do our part to stop the spread of COVID, which will be made worse by all these evictions as well.

the moratorium should have ended last year once covid restrictions became a thing of the past. LA knows it created a huge mess that it just allowed to get bigger and bigger and this is the result

Maybe we shouldn't be quite as reliant on markets and the exchange economy for people's most basic needs, like housing.

As they should. Look. We live in a system of rules. We need rules.

A lease agreement is a contract that is regulated and managed under contract law. If you agreed to said agreement, you have to comply with what you agreed to, just like you do with any other agreement (i.e. car, transportation, work equipment, furniture). You can't just agree to it and then use the asset forever and not abide by your side of the agreement. That's not fair. That is against the rules.

There are always larger discussions to be had about building more affordable housing, providing equitable access, and making sure renters aren't exploited etc.

But interfering with this common set of rules that govern our basic sense of contractal relationships needed to end long.

Pandemic is over.

It's been years. Should have come up with a better plan than, "No, I'm not leaving and you can't make me" because now they're making 'em.

I know homeschooling can be loosey goosey, but I don’t see how the mother is qualified to be a teacher for the daughter or how it’s better than school? I would think that would be a good time for the mother to be working

This would have been an effective sob story for NPR 1-2 years ago but this moratorium has more than overstayed its welcome (especially when most of the country has moved on).

When I read a story involving homeschooling a kid in the garage, I feel like the pandemic tenant protections are really just the turd frosting on top of a completely shit cupcake.

I'm sorry, but three years of no rent and they are still whining? They've had plenty of time to save, stack bread, figure it out, etc. Hard to feel sorry for some of these folks.

I have a friend who took a heavy mortgage on a Glendale income apartment building. He bought it right before the pandemic hit. He hasn’t seen any income and the building is fully occupied. He’s paying the mortgage, taxes, water and sewer, etc etc. He went from being successful to the brink of bankruptcy.

This is why NPR is a joke. They write sob story pieces like this without any actual discussion of what else is happening out there. Of course for NPR the answer is "government assistance programs" (which actually make it harder for rentals because building owners will be behind on mortgages and will also make rental qualifications much more stringent, understandably) and not what it should be which is to allow developers to BUILD.

We're going to see homelessness increase. I wish communities helped each other a little more. We've become desynthesized. Crazy when I travel seeing a homeless person is extremely rare yet in the cities where we have so much wealth I see it the most.

Good. Serves some of these people right. Those irresponsible jackasses who blew their rent moratorium savings on the latest iPhone, TV or car leased at 79.99% APR.