LA County Approves Legal Aid for Tenants Facing Eviction

Some Los Angeles County tenants will get free lawyers to help them fight pending evictions.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved free legal aid for residents facing evictions in unincorporated areas, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The move is an effort to prevent more people from becoming homeless. The program will cost $65 million and is funded through June 30, 2025.

Jesus Rojas, of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, asked the board to delay the ordinance.

He suggested the money be used for rental assistance for those who are unemployed, ill or disabled and can’t pay rent. “The vast majority of evictions are for not paying rent,” Rojas said.

The action affects 1 million residents in unincorporated communities from East Los Angeles to Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Altadena, Baldwin Hills and Topanga. It also includes small pockets in the San Fernando Valley and South Bay not within Los Angeles or other cities.

In a pilot program, the county has offered legal services to some renters for about a year.

About half the tenants who received legal assistance remained in their homes, the county reported. But many said help is only reaching a small fraction of those being evicted in a cycle that adds to growing homelessness.

“We’ve heard from experts that people are falling into homelessness faster than we can get people off the streets and into housing,” said Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, who said the program will level the playing field and give renters a better chance to stay housed. “Many cannot afford legal representation and their landlords often can.”

The right-to-counsel ordinance was first proposed by Second District Supervisor Holly Mitchell in July of last year. She said those most impacted by jacked up rents and evictions are minorities.

“Blacks and Latin people experience the highest level of evictions than any other racial groups,” Mitchell said. “And housing is expensive and unaffordable for too many working people.”

Last year, the county reported 44,000 eviction notices in the courts of L.A. County — the highest in nearly a decade, according to Lindsey Horvath, Third District supervisor and board chair.

L.A. County has 75,312 homeless people according to results of January’s point-in-time count. Since the previous year, the number of unsheltered residents in tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters fell by 5.1 percent, while people living in shelters rose by 12.7 percent.

— Dana Bartholomew