Restaurants will be allowed to deliver alcohol, and residents will not be evicted under new orders in the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a news conference Monday afternoon.
In the afternoon news conference, Garcetti touched on multiple new orders, including the topics of alcohol deliveries and the suspension of evictions under the Ellis Act.
"This step is necessary to keep tenants in their homes as we're asking them to stay home, and if you cannot pay rent, you cannot be evicted,'' he said.
Garcetti said that although the rent order will keep roofs over residents' heads, it was not a free ride. Residents who can make payments should continue to do so, but if they could not make rent payments, they would have six months to pay it back.
Garcetti said restaurants in the city of Los Angeles would be allowed to deliver alcohol. It wasn't immediately clear if the county would make a similar move.
The state also released guidance days before, advising that restaurants should be allowed to deliver alcohol under shelter-in-place type orders, as California's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control was relaxing regulations during this time.
Mayor Garcetti said he's allowing alcohol deliveries in the hope that neighborhood restaurants that people love will still be around when the coronavirus pandemic and "safer at home" order end.
Garcetti also addressed reports of some businesses still operating, despite the city's and county's "safer at home" orders, which call for all non-essential businesses to close up shop.
"Shut it down or we will shut you down," Garcetti said.
LA County has reported seven deaths in connection with the pandemic.
Click here for information about COVID-19 testing in LA County.
