LOS ANGELES, CA - The last day of March marked the end of Los Angeles County’s pandemic-era eviction protections.

Even before then, evictions had been on the rise. In the last year, eviction filings across the county have returned to pre-pandemic levels of more than 3,000 per month, according to Kyle Nelson, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA.

CALIFORNIA - Take a random selection of 10,000 Californians and 44 people will be homeless, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Services. That’s over 171,000 people across the Golden State. Half of the nation's unsheltered population — people living on the streets, in tents, in cars, in parks — live in California. On top of that, 17 million California renters face housing instability according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

Homelessness and not enough affordable housing are not new issues in California, but rising home prices, skyrocketing rent, and the growing number of people living without shelter have brought public frustration to a boiling point, with local mayors, city councils, and county boards of supervisors taking the brunt of that frustration as they stumble through policies and initiatives to try to respond to the parallel crises.

A bevy of bills floating through the Legislature this year hope to strengthen the state’s involvement in easing those frustrations. Will they work? 

LOS ANGELES, CA - “Estoy profundamente preocupada por el fuerte aumento en los desalojos ahora que ciertas protecciones para inquilinos han terminado. Mientras trabajamos para dar un techo a los angelinos, también tenemos que evitar que se queden en el desamparo”, declaró esta semana la alcaldesa de Los Ángeles, Karen Bass.

Dijo que espera que las protecciones de emergencia aprobadas por la Ciudad de Los Ángeles protejan a los inquilinos de los desalojos ilegales. “Nadie en nuestra ciudad debería enfrentar ninguna forma de discriminación por la vivienda o un desalojo ilegal”.

A partir del 1 de abril, las protecciones de desalojo por no pago de la renta debido al covid terminaron. A fin de evitar el desalojo, los inquilinos deben pagar su renta completa cada mes.

SANTA BARBARA, CA - The renoviction of about 1,000 tenants living at CBC & the Sweeps in Isla Vista had their county supervisor, Laura Capps, calling it a Code Red at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday over the “exploitation from out-of-state companies in the biggest mass eviction in California.”

By the end of a long day, Chair Das Williams announced that a meeting to discuss new just cause eviction ordinance language would be held on an urgency basis on Thursday, April 6. The hearing takes place at 9 a.m.

SACRAMENTO, CA - The city of Sacramento is evaluating proposed new rules designed to protect tenants from harassment, but it’s unclear whether the draft plan will receive enough votes to pass in the next few months. 

Opponents of the tenant anti-harassment ordinance say it isn’t necessary because state laws cover many of the issues, while supporters argue it’s difficult to hold landlords accountable to existing laws. 

Council member Caity Maple proposed the ordinance and said she modeled it after renter laws passed in cities such as Richmond, Oakland and Los Angeles. Despite state and federal landlord-tenant laws, Maple said many low-income and undocumented renters in the Oak Park area are struggling with landlord harassment. Organizers with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment told her a local ordinance could help. 

BAY AREA, CA - After more than a decade in the same Concord apartment with his wife and three kids, Antonio Avila Garcia is getting evicted.

Not because he failed to pay or broke the lease, but because his landlord wants to remodel. But Avila Garcia doesn't want to leave the tight-knit community he's built.

"We all know each other here," he said. "I even have a brother [who lives] here, too."

Major renovations are one of the few reasons outlined in the 2019 Tenant Protection Act that landlords in California can use to evict tenants who haven’t done anything wrong. The landmark legislation was designed to curb the impacts of rising rents and keep tenants in their homes. But housing advocates said the substantial-repairs exception created a loophole property owners are exploiting to kick renters out.

LOS ANGELES, CA - In the rarified air of luxury Los Angeles real estate, 30 days is a common closing timeline and two weeks would be speedy, explained Billy Rose, who’s guided buyers and sellers through high-end home purchases for years.

This week, work for Rose’s brokerage firm, The Agency, included two deals that went to closing in three days. There was one for $8.6 million and another for $14 million, said Rose, the co-founder and vice chairman. Both were cash transactions.

The catalyst is the City of Los Angeles’ “mansion tax,” a transfer tax that takes effect April 1.

LOS ANGELES, CA - “There’s never been a better time to build,” says Blackstone, the largest commercial landlord group in America.

But long-time residents of East Los Angeles neighborhoods say otherwise.

“La vivienda es un derecho humano. Housing is a human right.”

“No community benefit, no investment. Keep families home. Blackstone = Homelessness.”

These were just a few of the signs raised by a crowd of tenant protestors as they gathered in Currie Hall, a student housing building at the USC Health Sciences Campus on Wednesday.

The protest, organized by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment L.A. (ACCE Action), consisted of tenant demands for affordable housing and an outcry against displacement in the neighborhoods surrounding USC, particularly in East L.A., where the HSC campus is located.