LOS ANGELES, CA - Most people in Los Angeles are renters. But most of their political representatives are not. With voters feeling increasingly priced out of homeownership in L.A., that’s starting to change.

Candidates who rent won a number of significant local elections in November.

LOS ANGELES, CA - During the pandemic, temporary tenant protections were credited with drastically decreasing the number of evictions in Los Angeles county. According to Kyle Nelson, a UCLA postdoctoral fellow who tracked evictions during COVID, the number of eviction lawsuits went down by more than half at the height of the pandemic, from about 40,000 to 50,000 annual filings to just 13,000.

At the city level, a handful of new tenant protections have now been made permanent, and Los Angeles County has now extended its protections until the end of March. But nevertheless, eviction filings — which never fully stopped in LA — have already shot back up to pre-pandemic levels in recent months.

ANTIOCH, CA - Tenants who say they’ve reached the breaking point rallied on Thursday at Delta Pines Apartments in Antioch to demand the city pass tenant-rights measures to protect them and hold landlords accountable.

Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker and Councilwoman Monica Wilson proposed an anti-harassment ordinance, and another requiring landlords to prove just cause for evictions, in late 2021. But when the council approved a rent stabilization measure capping rent increases at 3% last year, it didn’t include clauses addressing either issue.

“This has got to be passed, it needs to be passed in all these cities to protect people, to protect these children,” tenant Kim Carlson said before the rally. “They don’t deserve to be harassed. I don’t pay this amount of rent to be constantly traumatized, constantly having to look out my windows.”

SACRAMENTO, CA - El señor Bernardo contactó a Univision 19 luego de recibir una orden de desalojo para presuntamente realizar reparaciones en su vivienda. El hombre teme que, si abandona la casa, el dueño de la vivienda no le permita volver una vez realizados los arreglos.

California will delay some spending commitments, reverse recent steps to shore up its fiscal health, and shift funding sources to limit the cuts it must make to close a projected $22.5 billion budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom said today.

SAN DIEGO - The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to declare housing as a human right, a rare move for a city with a lot of housing issues.

San Diego’s resolution states housing is a “fundamental human right and reaffirms its commitment to providing more housing and services geared toward putting a roof over the head of every San Diegan.” Madison, Wis., made a similar declaration in 2011 — making it likely San Diego is only the second, or at least part of a small minority of American cities, to put into writing that housing is a right.

LOS ANGELES, CA - This afternoon the L.A. City Council approved new protections for renters. The new tenant protections are anticipated to take effect by February 1, when temporary pandemic eviction restrictions are set to expire.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, one of the council’s most dedicated renter advocates in recent years and very much the main architect of today’s ordinance, termed today’s vote “the most significant since the institution of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.”

SAN DIEGO - The University of California Regents Committee on Investments discussed the performance of the UC’s portfolio of investments on Jan. 17, which currently sits at $157 billion in assets as of Jan. 15.

The Council of UC Faculty Associations joined with UC unions to call for the UC’s divestment from Blackstone. Members of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) spoke at the public comment session of the Jan. 17 Regents meeting in support of divestment.