LA votes on city’s eviction defense program

Thousands of low-income tenants in Los Angeles are at risk of losing essential eviction defense services if the city fails to renew and approve the multi-million dollar Stay Housed LA contract.

On Tuesday morning, 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 comes 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

Since 2020, 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 will expire by the end of this month, bringing advocates back to the chambers to fight for a concrete long-term contract. 

The city council is set to vote on the $177-million contract for organizations within Stay Housed LA, including 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 will not only result in the unnecessary, avoidable loss of housing and displacement for low-income Angelenos but will also obstruct 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 is not approved, they will have 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 does not have a contract, they estimate that approximately 160 tenants will not be represented in evictions, 575 tenants will not receive legal advice and about 100 know-your-rights workshops will 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. 

Members of the city council will be voting on the contract expansion in a closed session today. CALÓ News will be updating this story with any new updates.