ACCE Los Angeles in July 2025 won important new changes to the city's Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP) that aims to make landlords more accountable for habitability problems in their buildings. The LA City Council instructed the LA Housing Department (LAHD) to enact several changes, including providing information to tenants in their language, requiring photographs be taken before and after completion of repairs, and extending the Tenant Habitability Plan to cover temporary relocation. These reforms are a result of ACCE members' public comments, as well as ACCE's years long organizing the Chesapeake Apartment complex. LAHD has 130 days to report how they will implement the reforms.

The Los Angeles City Council in July approved $425.8 million in Measure ULA funds for 11 programs that will provide much needed protections for tenants, and to preserve and create more affordable housing. This expenditure of ULA funds for the 2025-26 fiscal year is the biggest in the program's history since voters approved the "mansion tax" measure in November 2022. These funds come at a crucial time as budgets at the local, state and federal level are being slashed. Thanks to this huge victory, thousands more Angelenos will have access to the assistance they need to stay in their homes.

“We need to protect tenants from ongoing harassment from landlords,” said Maria Briones, a tenant leader for ACCE Los Angeles. “Measure ULA provides the critical source of funding for the City to defend renters from harm.”

In a victory two years in the making, the Tourism Rising campaign ensured that workers in Los Angeles' tourism industry will receive $30 an hour by 2028. ACCE Los Angeles was among the first community organizations to support the effort. The TWR policy has been a part of the Raise the Wages and Lower the Rent platform during our historic tenant and worker solidarity march over the last two years. Thanks to ACCE members' strong presence during two years of coalition meetings, committee meetings, and city council meetings in support of SEIU-USWW and UNITE HERE! Local 11 workers, we can now celebrate this important win! 

Following LA County's approval last summer of the right for tenants facing eviction to get free legal representation, the LA City Council has also now passed a Right to Counsel law. The Council approved the law April 1, by a vote of 14-0. As members of the Right to Counsel coalition, ACCE leaders spent many months giving public testimony at City Council meetings to show support for this important right. In addition to LA County, LA City now joins New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia in establishing this pivotal law to help tenants stay in their homes.

On Feb. 25, the LA County Board of Supervisors 4-0 approved countywide emergency tenant protections for residents economically impacted by devastating wildfires in early 2025. It was ACCE tenant leaders who led the way in lobbying Supervisor Holly Mitchell for the crucial final vote for passage. ACCE secured support from the powerful LA Federation of Labor who then leaned on Supervisor Mitchell to vote our way. The protections will be in place until at least July 2025, giving fire-impacted residents the chance to rebuild their lives. 

Tenants in Los Angeles City can now effectively fight back against abusive landlords thanks to a stronger Tenant-Anti Harassment Ordinance (TAHO) taking effect in late December 2024. In one of ACCE Los Angeles' biggest victories, the City Council on Oct. 30, 2024, approved all of the major changes demanded by ACCE leaders and coalition partners Keep LA Housed and Movement Legal.

TAHO 2.0's amendments include:

• ensuring landlords are fined for each violation
• triple damages when landlords willfully engage in harassment
• requiring landlords to pay attorneys fees to tenants who win their case
• remedies for tenants, such as emotional damages

ACCE is currently working with coalition partners to ensure the improved TAHO is implemented, and to educate tenants about the law and how they can protect themselves from harassment.

Right to counsel is now a reality for tenants living in unincorporated LA County. As of January 1, 2025, LA County tenants facing eviction have access to free legal representation. The Board of Supervisors in July 2024 approved a Right to Counsel ordinance, making LA County the 24th jurisdiction to have a Right to Counsel. ACCE tenant leaders as part of the Right to Counsel coalition helped make this law a reality through public comments and lobbying efforts before the Board of Supervisors. Thanks to this work, LA County tenants are now able to defend themselves on an equal footing with landlords who try to unjustly throw them out of their homes!

Building on ACCE Los Angeles' successful campaign in July 2024 to protect South LA tenants displaced by new housing development, the same renter protections will now be expanded citywide. In December, the LA City Council adopted changes to the city's Resident Protection Ordinance (RPO) that will strengthen protections for all LA residents displaced by developers demolishing older apartment complexes to make way for new development. ACCE collaborated with partners at Movement Legal to draft the changes to the RPO based on the updated South LA Community Plan Implementation Overlay or CPIO. The protections include a right of return to newly developed units for displaced tenants, more generous relocation assistance, a five-year denial of demolition permits to landlords who have been found to harass tenants, and the right to sue landlords who violate tenants' rights. These new protections are a huge step toward curbing the rapid gentrification of historically low-income communities and communities of color.