It started with compassion during Covid, but if a November Ballot Measure passes, the City of Los Angeles could owe millions.
In April 2020, the City Council approved a $7.1 million contract with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) to prevent evictions.
Over the next three years, the contract expanded to $76 million. The City voted to expand it to $90.8 million through March 2026.
Now, the L.A. City Council voted on March 10 to increase it to $177 million in contracts for tenant-rights attorneys through June 30, 2027.
The City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Karen Richardson said, “What is in question is a $177 million blank check to LAFLA and its partners without the reports and invoice review that is required by law.”
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto said the contracts should come under competitive bidding. At the hearing Councilmember Monica Rodriquez said “Graffiti contractors are required to provide more documentation just to get paid.”
In the past, LAFLA and SAJE have sued the City, and Feldstein Soto also warned councilmembers to consider those suits before awarding public contracts to some groups.
LAFLA Director Barbara Schultz said that the tenant program was effective and that a city contract should not prevent a group from suing the City.
Nonprofits are awarded money from the City without competitive bidding – and then they are allowed to sue the city.
The latest contract continues the city’s participation in Stay Housed L.A., a city-and-county-funded coalition of roughly 20 organizations that provides legal assistance, rental aid and tenant education to low-income renters facing eviction and include LAFLA, Liberty Hill Foundation, Strategic Action For A Just Economy (SAJE), and the Southern California Housing Rights Center,
After Councilmembers voted 12-1 to approve the money (John Lee was no, Curren Price recused himself and Hugo Soto Martinez was absent), Councilmember Monica Rodriguez introduced several amendments that would require more documentation and receipts from contractors.
Not surprisingly, Nithya Raman, a mayoral candidate, who chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and favors increased tenants rights, voted against the amendments. She was joined by three other councilmembers including Eunisses Hernandez who is up for reelection this year.
As Jaime Paige reported in the California Post (“Tenant Lawyers Get $177 M in . . . Council’s Rental Breakdown) that money is more than “the annual budgets several Los Angeles city departments combined, including Animal Services, the Department of Disability and the administrative offices of the Board of Public Works.”
The money for eviction lawyers comes from the “mansion tax,” Measure ULA (United to House LA) that went into effect in 2023. All real property sold in the city of L.A. for above $5 million and below $10 million had an additional 4% transfer tax added. All real property sold for $10 million was taxed at 5.5%. According to one source, about one billion has been generated over the past three years.
There is a November ballot measure that could repeal the ULA. If that passes, L.A. would have to reimburse money already spent – and that would leave an even bigger deficit in city’s finances.