Resources have been made available by Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman so that Los Angeles residents can continue to live in their houses until the payment deadline of August 1.
Decrease Homelessness is now the priority of Los Angeles Officials (Source: LA Local News)
Tenants Covered by COVID-19 Rental Protection Will Expire Soon
From the report published by the Hey Socal, in a statement released on Thursday, Mayor Bass, “We will only be able to solve our city’s homelessness crisis if we work to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place.” The collaboration of Mayor Bass and the Los Angeles Housing Department to provide services for persons who may be impacted by the expiration of some COVID-19 rental protections on August 1. As they continue to address the homelessness situation, she emphasized that the city will make every effort to prevent additional counts of homeless families.
In a statement, Raman said that the city will use all of its resources, such as the package of renter safeguards the council put in place earlier this year, as well as Measure ULA funds and an eviction defense program, to stop Angelenos from going without a place to live because of unpaid rent. She is positive that the upcoming deadline will urge them to restructure the current situation into systematic proactive support to tenants to stay housed in the long run.
Tenants who were previously protected by the law during the epidemic have until August 1 to make up any unpaid rent that is due between March 2020 and September 2021. Tenants have until February 2024 to make up any unpaid rent for lease payments due between October 2021 and January 31.
To inform residents of the new protections and resources available to Angelenos, the mayor’s office and the Los Angeles Housing Department launched public outreach campaigns. These programs targeted single-family houses and newly protected post-1978 construction units in “high-risk” ZIP codes that Stay Housed LA designated. Protection-related paid commercials appeared in local newspapers and on the radio in a variety of languages.
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Campaign Against Homelessness Pushes by the Los Angeles City Officials
Additionally, advertisements appeared on social media sites, generating more than 150,000 hits, and on NextDoor, generating more than 1 million impressions. Homelessness prevention is a priority for The Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, an independent nonprofit organization that backs the mayor’s plans for the city. The group’s brand-new We Are LA program, which aims to reach and assist at-risk Angelenos in maintaining their housing, recently got underway. Nearly 41,000 Angelenos were reached by outreach teams, and more than 10,000 had appointments set up for case management. In the upcoming weeks, the initiative hopes to connect with over 200,000 people.
The “mansion tax,” often referred to as Measure ULA, is a 4% sales tax on properties costing more than $5 million and a 5.5% sales tax on properties costing more than $10 million. Renter protections, including safeguards for low-income seniors in danger of homelessness, rental assistance programs, and the construction of more affordable housing units will all benefit from the sales tax revenue that will be collected.
The proposal would raise between $600 million and $1.1 billion yearly, according to city officials, but that estimate was later revised downward to $672 million. On Thursday afternoon, the mayor’s office announced that the legislation had raised $38 million. The ULA spending plan will be discussed by the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee on August 2 and the whole council shortly after, according to the mayor’s office.
