Landlords in L.A. Attempt to Illegally Remove Tenants Who Can't Pay Rent

Los Angeles Police Department data shows that despite anti-eviction orders, landlords in the Los Angeles area are illegally and forcibly removing tenants from their homes during coronavirus lockdown. "Some Los Angeles landlords are still trying to oust tenants by locking them out of their homes, turning off their utilities and deploying other illegal methods," write Liam Dillon and Ben Poston who reviewed "290 instances of potential illegal lockouts and utility shutoffs across the city, according to the data." 

Since the onset of shelter-in-place orders, landlord-tenant disputes have increased by 17%, according to the article. Representatives of the L.A Tenants Union, a citywide organization working on behalf of tenants to block evictions, says the group has seen a massive uptick in requests for support, especially from tenants in South Los Angeles. 

Dillon and Poston discovered that a disproportionate number of the LAPD reports of landlord-tenant disputes came from neighborhoods in Black and Latino neighborhoods in South L.A., where residents are already experiencing the greatest health and financial impacts from the coronavirus in addition to extremely high rent burdens.