This Saturday, Long Beach renters will have the opportunity to consult legal experts and get connected to resources to help them stay housed once L.A. County’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of March.
The COVID-19 pandemic-era eviction moratorium set by the county to protect tenants who were financially impacted and unable to pay rent will end on March 31, and local tenant rights groups are looking to guide residents through what this will mean.
Long Beach Residents Empowered, or LiBRE, a tenant advocacy organization, will host a tenant rights workshop at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will include a community resource fair, and tenants will be able to seek free legal advice from lawyers if they think they may be facing eviction when the moratorium sunsets.
“Our intention is to connect renters with resources on protections available to them to keep them in their homes and out of homelessness,” the organization said in a statement.
Attendees will learn about how to navigate the eviction process and pay back owed rent, as well as what protections are available to them through the county and city.
About 60% of Long Beach’s nearly 500,000 residents are renters, according to the city’s current Housing Element. Of those, 43% are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on rent.
Under the current moratorium, landlords cannot evict low-income tenants who say they were financially harmed by COVID-19 and were unable to pay rent from July 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023. Starting April 1, however, the eviction process will be allowed to continue. To begin eviction proceedings, landlords will be required to serve tenants with a written 30-day notice for those who owe rent.