This week, LA tenants came within hours of losing one of the most important programs keeping people housed.
For months, the future of Stay Housed L.A., the city’s eviction defense program, has been tangled in a dispute inside City Hall. The program provides free legal representation, advice, and assistance to renters facing eviction, services that housing advocates say are among the most effective tools for preventing homelessness. The conflict centered on a $177 million package of contracts supporting the program and funded largely through Measure ULA, the voter approved transfer tax intended to fund housing stability programs.
The largest portion of that funding is a $107 million contract for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the nonprofit that coordinates the network of legal service providers delivering eviction defense through Stay Housed L.A. But shortly before the City Council vote, Hydee Feldstein Soto circulated a confidential memo urging councilmembers to reconsider awarding such a large contract to an organization that frequently sues the city. Legal Aid has recently represented plaintiffs in several cases challenging the city’s homelessness policies, including cases where courts found the city violated state open meeting laws and constitutional protections during encampment sweeps.
The dispute pushed the contract vote to the brink of collapse. On March 10 the issue appeared before the City Council as Item 5 on the agenda and more than a hundred people signed up to speak. The council chamber filled with tenants, lawyers, and community organizers warning that the program could shut down if the contract was not approved.
Many speakers described how eviction defense services had personally kept them from losing their homes. One Koreatown tenant told the council that when she faced eviction the program helped her understand her rights and find assistance. “Without this program I would have been living on the street. Many tenants like me need programs like Stay Housed L.A. Please approve the contract today.” Other tenants described how immigration raids and economic instability are making housing insecurity even worse for working families. One speaker explained that immigrant communities are already struggling to decide whether it is safe to go to work while enforcement actions increase. “We don’t know if we should go to work and risk being detained. If we get behind in rent, we fear getting evicted.”
Legal service providers told the council that failing to approve the contract would immediately disrupt eviction defense across the city. Attorneys explained that each month roughly 160 tenants receive full legal representation through the program and another 575 receive legal advice that often stops an eviction before it reaches court. Without funding, those services would stop and hundreds of tenants would face eviction proceedings alone.
Barbara Schultz, director of housing justice at Legal Aid, addressed the political dispute directly during her testimony. “A year ago, you approved a five year contract for Stay Housed L.A. Since then, the city has set numerous hoops all of which we have jumped through successfully,” she told councilmembers. Schultz also pushed back on the suggestion that Legal Aid’s litigation against the city should influence the eviction defense contract. “The city’s funding of Stay Housed L.A. in no way influences LAFLA litigation and certainly does not pay for it.”
She warned that the consequences of delaying the contract would fall directly on tenants. “If this contract doesn’t get approved today, this afternoon, we will have to start telling City of L.A. tenants that we can’t represent you.”
The argument raised by the City Attorney’s office also raises a broader issue. If the City of Los Angeles refused to contract with organizations whose attorneys sometimes litigate against the government, it would effectively bar many civil rights and legal aid groups from providing public services. Legal aid organizations exist precisely to ensure that low income residents can enforce their rights, including when those rights are violated by government agencies. Courts have repeatedly recognized that litigation against the government is protected activity, and government agencies cannot retaliate against organizations for exercising that right. The services funded through Stay Housed L.A. are also contractually separate from any impact litigation. Public funds can only be used for eviction defense work and are subject to reporting, invoicing, and auditing requirements that ensure the money is used only for those services.
After weeks of delays and negotiations, the City Council ultimately voted 12 to 1 to approve the contract and continue funding the program. Republican John Lee cast the lone dissenting vote. The broader funding package approved by the council includes $42 million for the Southern California Housing Rights Center to provide emergency rental assistance, nearly $22 million for the Liberty Hill Foundation to conduct tenant outreach and education, and $6.6 million for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy to help enforce the city’s tenant harassment protections.
Since launching in 2021, Stay Housed L.A. has opened roughly 26,000 cases. More than 6,000 tenants have received full legal representation and nearly 20,000 have received legal advice or other assistance designed to keep them housed. Housing advocates say those services often mean the difference between staying in a home and falling into homelessness.
The funding package approved by the council also includes another Measure ULA investment with potential implications for the Westside. Included in the plan is $60 million in income assistance for low income seniors and people with disabilities, which will be administered through the city’s FamilySource Center network. The first $14 million will prioritize households impacted by ICE raids and the recent wildfires.
That detail matters on the Westside because the district no longer has a FamilySource Center. As Mar Vista Voice previously reported, the West Los Angeles FamilySource Center closed in 2023 after Traci Park was warned months in advance that the funding was about to be eliminated and did not intervene. The closure eliminated roughly one million dollars a year in federal anti poverty funding and left the entire district without a comprehensive neighborhood service hub.
Now the city is expanding programs that rely on the FamilySource Center network to deliver assistance to seniors, people with disabilities, immigrant families impacted by ICE raids, and others facing economic hardship. Yet the Westside remains one of the few parts of Los Angeles without a center capable of administering those services locally.