Some tenants in Los Angeles will have to catch up after back-rent from the first 18 months of the pandemic will be due on Tuesday.
“It’s been very hard and mentally it’s very draining,” Louverna Durst, a tenant, said.
Durst says she is way over her head in debt and says it all began when COVID-19 shut everything down.
She says she is about four months behind because she was not able to get assistance on her own. “I needed proof of income and the government offices were closed,” Durst said.
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She is one of thousands of tenants the City of Los Angeles is hoping to help with the mayor’s emergency assistance program and prevent adding to the city’s homeless problem. A multi- million dollar effort to ease what many called an uncertain time.
“It was very uncertain for a lot of people. Certainly for the tenants as well as the property owners,” Tom Daniels, a landlord, said.
Daniels was behind on rent on his five multi family properties for several years during the pandemic in Los Angeles.
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He was dipping into his savings, and eventually was forced to sell them.
He says the pandemic relief seemed to lean heavier on tenants and put owners like him on a tremendous financial strain when a city ordinance froze residential rents in 2020.
“It was almost four years without being able to raise rents and costs went up, almost doubled. For small property owners it was very uncertain and challenging,” Daniels said.
Daniels hopes the city will keep both tenants and local landlords in the scope of any future aide since many in his situation have seen little to no help.
“The majority of landlords in the city are small. Mom and pop size who really don’t have the resources these big corporations have,” Daniels said.
“I don’t even make $1,000 a month in income to pay rent, utilities, food, cellphone, house goods. It’s not enough money,” Durst said.
Daniels said he doesn’t believe all tenants are struggling. He says the city should aim for a better system focused only on struggling tenants to provide landlords some relief.
