UCLA Report Raises Housing Crisis Alarm to L.A. Officials

A UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy report in the first issue in the Housing Justice in the Time of COVID-19 series sheds light on the housing insecurity in Los Angeles caused by long-term governmental failure to act on the behalf of Angeleno renters, urging readers to consider effects of COVID-19 on the population. 

Titled "UD Day: Impending Evictions and Homelessness in Los Angeles," a reference to eviction filings through un-lawful detainer complaints, the report documents a path to avoid further pain and acts to "warn policy makers and the public of the impending humanitarian, social, and political disaster that Los Angeles County now faces and what can be done to mitigate the damage to Angelenos," as describes Gary Blasi, author and professor emeritus at UCLA Law. 

Predicting a massive surge of evictions and an increase in unhoused population, Blasi says that the damage could have been prevented by "robust tenant protections, rent relief, and eviction moratoria at local, state, and federal levels of government." Blasi urges government officials at all levels to prepare for what will be a humanitarian crisis unlike any other we've seen nearly a century.