Yesterday the LA City Council voted 11-0 for the creation of a Quality Repairs pilot program that will prevent and better address substandard housing conditions, preserve our RSO housing stock and improve the overall health of tenants across this City. It was significant tenant and housing victory. The program aims to prevent shoddy or cosmetic repairs that do not address root problems and will improve the quality of repairs in rental units by:
– Eliminating the 15 day advance notice to landlords of an inspection initiated by a tenant complaint to HCID in order to allow HCID to verify the problem and determine whether a correction notice to the property owner is warranted;
– Establishing a pre-repair conference with landlords whose properties have a history of reoccurring code violations (problem properties) thus giving HCID the opportunity to guide owners on how to make quality repairs;
– Amending the Los Angeles Municipal Code to establish regulations for lead-safe work practices in residential buildings built before 1978.
Despite the last minute and very intense effort by the opposition inside Council Chambers to delay and derail our proposal, Councilmember Cedillo went forward with the vote and again took time to recognize the tenants and advocates who have been working with his office for more than a year on this issue. We would like to thank the more than 60 tenants, organizational members and partners who joined us for our morning press conference and packed Council Chambers to witness the vote.
It was our goal to move both quality repairs and rent registry through Council before Renters’ Day in April. This is no small feat! We are very excited and proud of our collective efforts thus far but recognize there is still so much more to do.
