All about the eviction RTC in Los Angeles County

UPDATE July 2024: LA County enacts RTC ordinance!

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the County of Los Angeles has enacted an ordinance that creates a right to counsel for tenants at 80% or below of area median income who are facing eviction in the unincorporated areas of the county, and it goes into effect on January 1, 2025, making LA County the second county and the 24th jurisdiction overall to create such a right.  The story notes that currently only 3% of LA tenants have access to counsel, compared to 88% of landlords.

ABC 7, My News LA, and LAist also covered the vote.

Update: LA County votes to start RTC codification process

On July 11, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to take a major step towards right to counsel.  From My News LA:

In a unanimous vote, the board directed its attorneys to return within 10 months with a “Right to Counsel” ordinance, with the goal of ensuring legal representation for eligible tenants in unincorporated areas by the 2024-25 fiscal year. The board also directed the director of the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs to report back in 180 days with a plan for a phased expansion of the program to extend the same legal representation guarantee to eligible tenants in all county areas outside the city of Los Angeles, with the goal of universal access by 2030-31.

The vote was also covered by LAist, ABC 7, LA Times (reprinted by Yahoo), Santa Monica Mirror, and The Real Deal.

Update: County provides funding for move towards right to counsel

The County of Los Angeles appropriated $8.7 million for tenant representation.

Update: report finds right to counsel would save City/County of Los Angeles millions of dollars

A report for Los Angeles by Stout concludes that “With an annual investment of approximately $47.3 million by the County and $34.6 million by the City separately, the County and the City may avoid costs of approximately $226.9 million and $120.3 million, respectively”, and that “In 95 percent of cases where the tenant was represented, the tenant had a high likelihood of avoiding disruptive displacement.”

Update: efforts continue to create and fund eviction right to counsel

A report out of LA County by Public Counsel and others urges a number of reforms to the landlord/tenant law, including the right to counsel as an essential tenant protection.