City Looks to Extend Eviction Moritorium

Long Beach City Council looks to modify the city’s eviction moratorium for those impacted by COVID-19 set to expire July 31, in anticipation that the county’s ordinance may not provide the same protections.

The City Council met July 7 to discuss the upcoming expiration of the eviction moratorium that will expire at the end of this month. The decision on whether there should be an extension comes at the uncertainty of whether an expiration of the city’s moratorium would then be replaced by a county-wide moratorium already in place that will expire on the same day, but is widely anticipated by many officials to be extended.

“It is not entirely clear to me that the county ordinance would for sure apply to Long Beach tenancies,” said Deputy City Attorney Rich Anthony. “If the Long Beach city ordinance expired and the county ordinance did apply, it wouldn’t necessarily cover all the tenancies that the city one did.”

Anthony presented information to the council about the differences in the county’s ordinance and how cities with their own moratoriums were exempt from the county’s guidelines. Since Long Beach implemented its own moratorium March 24, the city isn’t clear on how an extension or expiration will affect tenants.

“While the ordinances are very similar to each other, they’re not exactly the same.”

Some members of the community think that letting the city’s ordinance expire is the best course of action.

“There are gaps in Long Beach’s eviction moratorium that are preventing renters from enjoying substantial protections that are available at the county level,” said Joshua Christian, an attorney with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Some of those protections as Christian presented to the City Council via video conference are bans on 60-day notices to vacate and protection against landlord-tenant harassment.

“The simplest way to deal with that is to simply let the long beach moratorium expire,” said Christian. “at which point the county’s will kick in.”

Others of the community want to move away from eviction moratoriums outright and in favor of alternatives to resolve rent relief.

“We’ve been going around and around with this, and it seems to me there may be another alternative,” said Mike Murchison, an advocate for property owners. “We can start looking at creative ideas to try to resolve this.”

Members of the City Council voiced their concerns over the uncertainty of the moratorium and emphasized the need for a quick solution.

“I am a renter as well here in Long Beach and theses times are very uncertain,” said councilwoman Mary Zendejas. “I can just imagine the difficulty for tons of, maybe thousands of residents here in Long Beach.”

The councilwomen also reiterated the importance of making the right decision moving forward as the expiration date nears.

“We also need to recognize that this is a crisis, and this crisis is certainly not over.”

Other councilmembers, as well as Mayor Robert Garcia all agreed that the best course of action is to monitor the decisions made by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The county board of supervisors will meet July 21 to determine what will be done for the county-wide moratorium.

Anthony, meanwhile, vowed to the City Council that the next few weeks would be used by city staffers to determine what the implications would be if the city ordinance expired and in its place the county ordinance was used instead. Once staffers gain a better idea of the similarities and differences, he would then address the City Council with recommendations.

eric@beachcomber.news