LA approves eviction defense program extension

Yesterday the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the Los Angeles Housing Department’s (LAHD) proposed contracts with Stay Housed LA (SHLA) partners. Signifying a big win for renters in L.A., the vote allows the coalition to continue its eviction defense and prevention work.

The amended contract will last 15 months and include two options for one-year extensions.

If the city had decided to not renew and approve the multi-million dollar contract, thousands of low-income tenants would have lost essential eviction defense services. 

“The services provided by these programs—including legal assistance, targeted tenant outreach and education, and short-term rental assistance—are essential to protecting the most vulnerable renters facing eviction, and today's vote hopefully ensures that there will be no lapse in services to Angelenos in need,” said L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee.

Yesterday's vote concludes a nine-month competitive bidding process for the city’s eviction defense program. It also ensures continuity of services provided by Stay Housed L.A., just weeks away from when their current contract with the city was scheduled to end on March 31.

On Tuesday morning, before the councilmembers vote, tenants and housing rights organizations gathered outside of L.A. City Hall to advocate for the protection of Stay Housed LA's eviction defense program, which, since 2020, has provided free legal services, outreach and rental assistance to renters in L.A.

L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez (CD-1) was present at Tuesday's rally and called out the city council for “dragging its feet” when it came to securing a contract for what is to be considered L.A.’s eviction defense program. 

“Everyone in city hall agrees that homelessness is one of the biggest crises facing our city, so if we are serious about getting ahead of it, the most common-sense thing to do is stop eviction before it happens,” she said. “It is much easier to keep someone in their housing than to try to get them housing once they fall into homelessness, and that brings us to the fight in front of us today, the fight to get the Stay Housed LA contract across the finish line so we can protect tenants.” 

Background

Stay Housed LA, a coalition made up of nearly 30 nonprofit law firms and community-based organizations, has been in close partnership and funded by both the city and county of L.A. This county and city partnership was founded as a preventative measure during COVID-19, which caused a wave of evictions in L.A., one of the most housing-insecure cities in the United States. 

Almost six years later, many renters in L.A. face a different crisis: the overwhelming ICE raids and the fear of showing up to work. In mixed-status families, the loss of income, fear-driven displacement and increased risk of eviction have been a constant reality for months and in other cases for years. 

As CALÓ News previously reported, last October, the L.A. City Council voted to pay nearly $3.7 million to extend renter assistance funding and another $12 million to extend other Stay Housed LA services, but that temporary contract extension was scheduled to expire by the end of this month. 

Stay Housed LA includes the Housing Rights Center (HRC), which provides services for rental assistance; the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), which provides renters with legal representation in court; and the Liberty Hill Foundation (LHF), which focuses on tenant outreach and education. 

Christina Gonzalez, a directing attorney at Movement Legal, a nonprofit organization specializing in eviction defense and tenant rights, said the inability to protect Stay Housed LA would have not only resulted in the unnecessary, avoidable loss of housing and displacement for low-income Angelenos but also obstructed their ability to access free legal representation in eviction and subsidy termination court cases, also known as the right to counsel. 

“The reality is, when tenants go to court for an eviction case, their first day in court is their trial; this is unlike most other civil cases or even criminal cases. The vast majority of tenants who go to court without an attorney lose their cases for various reasons. The vast majority of landlords, on the other hand, do have attorneys and they usually win when they're up against a tenant that doesn't have an attorney,” she told CALÓ News. “Because even if the protections are there, most folks don't know about them and don't know how to assert their rights and their protections without an attorney.”

Gonzalez, who has been doing eviction defense work for over 10 years, said she is in eviction court various times a week, if not daily. “It is heartbreaking day after day seeing tenants showing up in court without an attorney, losing their case and having to move out of their homes within days,” she said. 

She said that although Movement Legal wins most of their cases and helps renters stay in their homes, secure favorable settlements or obtain rent waivers and relocation assistance, if the Stay Housed LA contract was not approved, they will have had to stop representing thousands of tenants. 

According to LAFLA, Stay Housed LA has assisted in about 26,000 cases overall, providing full representation for 6,150 cases and working on nearly 20,000 limited-scope cases. 

Stay Housed L. also said that for each month that the coalition did not have a contract, they estimated that approximately 160 tenants would not be represented in evictions, 575 tenants would not receive legal advice, and about 100 know-your-rights workshops would be cancelled. 

Estuardo Mazariegos, candidate for City Council District 9, which includes neighborhoods like South Central, Vermont Square, Central-Alameda and Green Meadows, was also present at Tuesday's rally, where he said he was specifically there to advocate for renters, who make up 64% of the overall city population. 

“Right now we're living through the biggest housing crisis in the history of the city, and we need to ensure that programs like Stay Housed LA stay and are expanded because those are the things that are really helping tenants,” he said. “This is a tenant-majority city, and this is one of the things that we need to do as tenants: mobilize that political power that we have. CD-9 is a tenant-majority city district; the city of Los Angeles is a tenant-majority city.” 

In 2025, state data showed that eviction filings in the City of L.A. fell 16% from the year before, and many Stay Housed LA advocates claim this is due to the right to counsel programs. 

“Stay Housed LA is a homelessness prevention powerhouse. We are 29 different legal aid and community organizations with a shared purpose: housing justice,” said Silvia Argueta, executive director of LAFLA. “We reach Angelenos faced with often-unlawful eviction attempts, empower them to know their rights, represent them in court and help them pay their back rent as needed. This work helped reduce evictions last year in the city, but the 21,000-plus evictions filed last year are still far too many and this contract will ensure that our work together continues without interruption.”