Good news—earlier today, Los Angeles City Councilmembers voted unanimously to pass an interim control ordinance (ICO) temporarily removing renovation work as a basis for eviction from the city’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance. This change goes into effect immediately, and remains in place until August 1, 2025, or whenever a permanent ordinance is passed (whichever comes first).

This vote comes after years of organizing and advocacy by members of the Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU), SAJE, and partner organizations in the Los Angeles for Resilient & Healthy Homes coalition (LARHH).

For years, so-called renovictions, or evictions due to renovation work in a rental unit or building, have made it easy for unscrupulous landlords to subvert state rent protections, displace long-standing tenants paying below market rate rent, and hike rents for new residents. Closing the substantial remodel loophole will both improve housing stability for current renters and protect communities from pretextual evictions and dramatic rent surges in the midst of L.A.’s severe housing crisis.

Tenants who live in older units covered by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO) have long been protected from renovictions. But, tens of thousands of tenants living in newer construction not covered by LARSO have been vulnerable. These exempted homes are regulated by a statewide law, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (TPA), and until today they were subject to a “substantial remodel” provision for eviction that made it easy for landlords to use remodeling projects, like a kitchen or bathroom upgrade, as an excuse to kick tenants out. With the passage of the ICO, that substantial remodel provision no longer applies to TPA-regulated housing stock in the City of L.A.

The passage of this interim control ordinance brings much-needed relief to tenants in Echo Park, where residents on Mohawk Street have been collectively fighting a third round of renovictions as a tenants association organized within LATU’s Echo Park Local chapter.

“Renovations should improve our homes, not drive us from them,” notes Erika Mata, who grew up at 1512 Mohawk Street. “These landlords are evicting us, making the most basic improvements, and then turning around and renting the unit out for much more. It’s not just destroying housing affordability—it’s forcing long-term tenants to leave their neighborhoods and communities forever.”

Currently, the Los Angeles Housing Department and the City Attorney are working to develop a permanent ordinance to close the substantial remodel provision loophole for good, which they’ll bring back to City Council for a vote in the coming months. Stay tuned for more as we bring this campaign to a much-needed close!