Posted on 09/23/2023
ONE BIG THING: APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR RENT RELIEF
What Happened
This week, applications to pay off up to six months of back rent opened for LA residents.
Who is eligible?
You can visit housing.lacity.org to see if you’re eligible, but the criteria are pretty simple. You’re probably eligible if:
- You are a resident of the City of Los Angeles (regardless of immigration status).
- Someone in your household suffered loss of employment, reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced other financial hardship between March 2020 and now.
- You have unpaid rent since April 2020.
- Your household income is at or below 80% of the area median income (check housing.lacity.org to learn more!)
Why it Matters
LA isn’t just in a homelessness crisis right now, we’re in an eviction crisis. In our district alone, nearly 7,000 households received eviction notices just since February of this year and those numbers are only continuing to increase.
If we want to keep our homelessness crisis from spiraling further out of control, we need to make big time investments in homelessness prevention, and that means keeping vulnerable families off the streets and in their homes. This type of direct rental relief is proven to be the most effective and efficient way to do just that.
How can I help prevent evictions in my neighborhood?
If you go to housing.lacity.org, you can find flyers in 13 different languages to share with your neighbors and print out to post around your building.
Even if you don’t owe back rent, you can still help out, because this homelessness and eviction crisis affects all of us.
Three More Quick Hits!
1. More Supportive Housing for our unhoused neighbors in Hollywood!
On Monday, we joined the Grand Opening of a new mental health-focused interim housing facility with 56 beds to help unhoused residents get on a stable path to recovery.
Converted from an old hotel, this is one of the first interim housing sites in our region to specifically focus on mental health care, which we know is a significant driver of homelessness in our city.
2. Over 7,000 Units of Affordable Housing Fast-Tracked
This week, we also joined Mayor Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman at a 62 unit permanent housing facility in East Hollywood to recognize the over 7,000 units of affordable housing that have been fast-tracked in LA thanks to Executive Directive 1, which was implemented just this year.
We know there’s still so much work to do on this issue, but it’s always great to feel some hope after decades of failed policy and neglect when it comes to housing and homelessness.
3. Happy 95th Birthday, Reverend James Lawson
Yesterday was the 95th birthday of one of the godfathers of the Civil Rights Movement, Reverend James Lawson. James Lawson taught nonviolent resistance to MLK, John Lewis, and countless other civil rights leaders, and was hugely influential in the LA labor and social justice movements ever since he came here in the 70s.
This week, we were incredibly humbled to honor Reverend Lawson in City Hall and officially declare yesterday, September 22, as James Lawson Day in the City of Los Angeles.