Despite protections, landlords seek to evict tenants in Black and Latino areas of South L.A.

Despite new anti-eviction rules passed in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, Los Angeles landlords are still trying to evict tenants by locking them out of their homes, turning off their utilities, and deploying other illegal methods. A Times analysis of data from the Los Angeles Police Department has found that the largest share of those police calls was in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, which have faced the greatest health and economic problems from the coronavirus pandemic.

South L.A. neighborhoods have some of the county’s highest rates of coronavirus infections. A CNK report from April of last year showed that residents there also faced disproportionately high rent burdens even before the pandemic, and often work in food service and other sectors with significant wage reductions and job losses due to COVID-19. And because of the large population of undocumented immigrants, many cannot receive unemployment benefits or other government assistance.

“This is a web of urban inequality,” said CNK Director Paul Ong. “We could talk about housing, we could talk about jobs, we could talk about health. But the truth of the matter is all these things are interlocked.”

Access the LA Times article for more details at: Despite protections, landlords seek to evict tenants in Black and Latino areas of South L.A.

Access the report at: Economic Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis in Los Angeles: Identifying Renter-Vulnerable Neighborhoods