Luis Sanchez and Elenia Soza collected aluminum cans and scrap metal, washed carpets and worked on cars after they couldn’t find paying work during the COVID-19 pandemic. He worked hard, taking care of the details and doing other people’s laundry.
Some months I had enough income, some months I didn’t. “We did anything for money,” Sanchez, 40, told USA TODAY.
This summer, the parents of five faced eviction for the second time in less than five years after falling behind on rent by about $12,000. The family was able to remain in place with the help of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund. Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund is a charity that leads a team of 40 caseworkers and 12 attorneys to help at-risk tenants apply for federal, state, and local benefits and services. is. situation.
The government benefits people receive go toward paying rent and paying attorneys to represent them in eviction court.
Officials say more than 75,000 people are homeless across Los Angeles County, with the majority living outdoors. Over the past 15 months, the Mayor’s Los Angeles Endowment Strategy has prevented a potential increase in the number of households by more than 23,000 households.
“It’s been a long time since I didn’t have a Christmas tree at home for Christmas,” said Souza, 42. “Now my kids can’t wait to have my family over and have dinner together.”
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The Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund began working on eviction prevention in the spring of 2023, and a year later began a highly intensive approach where social workers are given the names of people who are likely to be evicted and social workers go looking for them. I did. The model includes carefully tailored privacy agreements and is a reversal from previous eviction prevention programs, in which social workers assist at-risk tenants.
Despite its name, the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund is technically separate from Mayor Karen Bass’ office and has a $7.5 million budget derived from philanthropy and private sector donations, the nonprofit said. the group said. The nonprofit was originally founded in 2014 by former Mayor Eric Garcetti. At the time, the mission was to improve city services through private partnerships.
But now the organization is focusing on housing. Thousands of dollars are being given to help people at risk of eviction get back on their feet, but many don’t know the solutions, said Conway Collis, CEO of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund. told USA TODAY. .
“They could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table,” Collis said.
Collis said at-risk people became involved in the eviction prevention program earlier this summer, and a secret list of names was given to the foundation’s social workers this summer.
“This is just a big change and a big game changer,” Collis said.
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Homeless population increases due to evictions
Policy experts say evictions are a constant in cities like Los Angeles, and water is dripping from the tap, leaving more and more people without housing across the region. In 2023, landlords filed evictions against more than 47,000 households in Los Angeles County, according to data analyzed by the local nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.
On an individual level, advocates say, losing a home is an emergency that can disrupt a person’s entire life, much like if a home were struck by a natural disaster.
“What we’re facing is like an earthquake hitting Los Angeles every day,” Collis said.
Bass, whose main problem is homelessness, said she is fighting the battle in Los Angeles through a temporary shelter program at a hotel. In a statement to USA TODAY, Bass said the Mayor’s Fund is leading the city’s efforts on homelessness prevention, an important step in the overall fight to reduce homelessness.
“What the Mayor’s Fund is doing has never been done before in the United States. It’s pioneering a city-wide approach that actually prevents homelessness head-on,” Bass said.
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“Landlords are not the enemy”
In addition to helping tenants, the program also works with landlords who want to prevent at-risk tenants from being evicted and potentially adding to the city’s homelessness crisis.
Jason Matzuki saw Sanchez and Souza struggling and connected them to the Mayor’s Fund in hopes that a social worker could help them rebuild their finances.
“From the moment you become a landlord, you have to really engage with the residents,” says the real estate agent Sola Impact, which manages 3,000 units, including the housing complex where Sanchez and Souza live in a three-bedroom apartment. Matsuki said.
Matsuki said evictions in Los Angeles often occur because low-income households face insurmountable economic hardship, not because the tenants are bad.
The same was true for Sanchez and Souza, who misplaced their green cards after they were evicted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With nowhere else to go, they stored some of their most precious possessions in a warehouse. But because they couldn’t pay, the facility threw away all their belongings, Sanchez said. Without a residence permit, they could not find work. In 2023, they would be victims of identity theft and would not be eligible for child tax credits, Sanchez said.
“If it’s just financial, we have all the tools in our toolbox to pull out the ledger and see someone struggling and identify trends,” Matsuki said.
Over the summer, Matski said, 21 of the 26 at-risk families living on his property avoided eviction using funds and resources from the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund.
“In most cases, the landlord is not the enemy,” Collis said. “Landlords, in some ways, are bearing the economic brunt of this housing situation.”
More rent relief and legal support needed, advocates say
Since May, 4,366 tenants whose names and apartment numbers were on the confidential list have been connected to lawyers representing them in court eviction proceedings, according to the Mayor’s Fund. Since the fund began focusing on eviction prevention in 2023, about 20% of its funding has gone toward legal assistance, Collis said.
In eviction court, Collis said, renters rarely have legal representation, but property owners almost always have legal representation, creating a negotiation process that greatly favors landlords. That’s what it means.
Meanwhile, some landlords in Los Angeles believe that money from the Mayor’s Fund should only be used to provide rent relief to tenants, and not for legal battles that could cost landlords more money. said Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Greater Apartment Association. Los Angeles.
Yukelson said that with rising home prices and stricter real estate regulations in California, more owners are leaving for Texas and Florida, where it is easier to make money investing in real estate.
Yukelson said the high costs and business risks associated with providing rental units in Los Angeles are contributing to the city’s affordable housing shortage, and that people at risk of eviction can recover their rent. He said it’s important to stay in your home.
“The people who provide housing have to be able to afford to stay in business,” Yukelson said. “The last thing anyone wants is to put their family out on the street. That’s not why we invest in these properties. The tenants are our customers.”
Target at-risk households
Collis said the program will primarily benefit some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable renters, including those living in low-income neighborhoods.
People making more than 30 to 50 percent of the area median income (about $40,000 for a one-person household) are not eligible.
Calls to the hotline doubled this summer when families received mailings addressed to social workers. According to the fund, 38% of at-risk households that worked with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund had children.
Souza said her family’s three-bedroom apartment has a garden and she has become close friends with a cancer survivor who lives next door. With hot food most nights, “this is home,” Souza said.
“When I start thinking about other places I’ve been, I don’t feel as comfortable as here,” Sanchez said. “And I’m grateful to the people who helped me get to this place.”