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CC - ACTION ITEM: Discussion and Direction on (1) an Eviction Moratorium; and/or (2) a Pause on Rent Increases; and/or (3) a Rental Assistance Program, All for Persons Impacted by Recent Immigration Enforcement Actions.
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Meeting Date: July 14, 2025
Contact Person/Dept.: Jesse Mays, Assistant City Manager
Tevis Barnes, Director of Housing and Human Services
Phone Number: City Manager’s Office - (310) 253-6000
HHS Office - (310) 253-5780
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Attachments: Yes [] No [X]
Public Notification: Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness (07/10/2025); Landlord Tenant Mediation Board (07/10/2025); Culver City Unified School District (07/10/2025); Exodus Recovery, Inc. (07/10/2025); Upward Bound House (07/10/2025); St. Joseph Center (07/10/2025); and (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (07/10/2025)
Department Approval: John Nachbar, City Manager (07/09/2025) _____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council discuss and provide direction on (1) an eviction moratorium; and/or (2) a pause on rent increases; and/or (3) a rental assistance program, all for persons impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions.
BACKGROUND
At the June 30, 2025 Special City Council Meeting, the City Council gained consensus to agendize a discussion and direction on an eviction moratorium, a pause on rent increases, and/or a rental assistance program, all for persons impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions. The purpose would be to assist individuals and families who are part of the Culver City community and who are suffering due to the ongoing immigration enforcement activity throughout the region.
Current Eviction Protections
The City’s Tenant Protections Ordinance (TPO) outlines a specific set of reasons that a tenancy may be terminated when a tenant has resided in a unit for 12 months or more, which are categorized as For Cause and No Fault. Tenancies that are terminated due to For Cause reasons are those where the following has occurred, generally, at the fault of the tenant: failure to pay rent, breach of the rental agreement, failure to provide reasonable access to the unit, use of the unit to create a nuisance or for an illegal purpose, or the tenant residing in the unit was also the resident manager whose tenancy at the property was a condition of employment that has been terminated. No Fault terminations are due to no cause by the tenant, but instead, the landlord seeking to recover the rental unit for demolition, withdrawing the rental unit(s) from the rental market, a landlord’s or eligible family member’s occupancy, or compliance with a deed restriction or government order. No Fault terminations typically require landlords to provide permanent relocation assistance to affected tenants in the amount of three times the greater of tenant's current monthly rent in effect or the small area fair market rent established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for a comparable unit in the same ZIP code, plus $1,000.00. There are exceptions to this requirement for small landlords who own three units or fewer recovering a unit for the landlord or eligible family member’s occupancy of the unit.
At the March 3, 2025 City Council meeting, the City Council discussed an eviction moratorium due to the wildfires in Los Angeles County, but ultimately decided against it.
Current Restrictions on Rent
The City’s Rent Control Ordinance (RCO) currently limits rent increases to no more than 2-5% annually, as determined by the change in CPI, for parcels of two or more rental units built on or before February 1, 1995 (covered rental units). The City announces the Maximum Permissible Rent Increase on a monthly basis, which applies to all covered rental units. The most recently announced Maximum Permissible Rent Increase is 3.25% for all increases that will take effect between June 1, 2025 and August 31, 2025. The RCO also specifies that rent cannot be increased more than one time within a 12-month period, unless otherwise approved by the Housing and Human Services Department. Single-family homes, townhomes, and condos are not subject to the City’s RCO except in certain circumstances and depending on specific criteria.
At the March 3, 2025 City Council meeting, the City Council discussed a rent increase pause due to the wildfires in Los Angeles County, but ultimately decided against it.
Current Rental Assistance Program
Currently, the only rental assistance provided by the City is through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. Funding for this program is limited to the funds received from the federal government. All current funding is already dedicated to Housing Choice Vouchers or Project Based Vouchers for Jubilo Village, so the City is not intaking new participants into this program.
Previous Rental Assistance Programs
Rental Assistance Program (RAP)
The City previously administered the former Culver City Redevelopment Agency (CCRA) supported Rental Assistance Program (RAP). With the dissolution of redevelopment agencies statewide which eliminated funding to support RAP rental subsidies through the Low-and-Moderate-Income Housing Fund (LMIHF), the RAP is currently being winded down through attrition. Only elderly and disabled households are supported through the RAP. Rental subsidies are paid directly to the participating property owner and are funded through the City’s General Fund.
COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (COVID-19 ERAP)
In 2020, the Council and Culver City Housing Authority Board adopted a resolution to use $1.5 million in former CCRA funds through the Low-and Moderate-Income Housing Asset Fund (LMIHAF) to create the COVID-19 ERAP. This program was designed to preserve and facilitate housing security and stability and prevent residents from falling into homelessness due to this health crisis pandemic. Eligibility under the COVID-19 ERAP included: Culver City residency with current lease/rental agreement, households whose annual income, did not exceed 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) for Los Angeles County, and households who are unable to pay their rent due to circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rent subsidies provided under COVID-19 ERAP were either in the form of a 3-month catch-up grant or one-year of rental assistance. All rental assistance was paid directly to the property owner.
DISCUSSION
Eviction Moratorium and Rent Increase Pause
An eviction moratorium and/or rent increase pause would need to be narrowly tailored to only apply to those impacted by federal immigration enforcement tactics to survive a legal challenge.
As with the City’s existing rent control and tenant protections program, enforcement of a rent increase pause would be on a complaint-driven basis. There are some practical difficulties with a targeted rent increase pause:
• Undocumented immigrants may be hesitant to file complaints due to the need to submit personal information to the City which could be subpoenaed by a federal immigration agency.
• Undocumented persons may not be able to provide proof of rent paid, in which case the City would need to rely on personal attestation.
There are also practical difficulties with an eviction moratorium:
• In general, an eviction moratorium serves as an affirmative defense against an unlawful detainer (eviction) action. This would require a person to go to court and assert the affirmative defense. However undocumented immigrants may be hesitant to go to court given the immigration enforcement actions that have occurred in courthouses.
• If City is asked to weigh in on a tenant’s eligibility for the eviction moratorium, the City would need a way to verify that the tenant is eligible for protection under the moratorium. However any information the City collects from the tenant could be subpoenaed by Federal law enforcement. As a result, this may not be an effective method for assisting undocumented immigrants who would likely be reluctant to request the City’s intervention.
Should the City Council direct staff to draft and return with an ordinance enacting an eviction moratorium and/or rent increase pause, the following policy direction would need to be given:
• The public policy goals of the moratorium and/or rent pause (e.g. keeping people who have experienced financial impacts due to immigration enforcement activities housed and keeping their children in their regular schools).
• Length of time for the moratorium and/or pause to be in effect.
• Immigration Status Criteria for eligibility (e.g. undocumented immigrant status; and/or one household member has been detained or deported by ICE or another federal immigration agency; and/or one household member is facing removal proceedings; and/or part of a mixed-status household experiencing financial hardship due to immigration enforcement) and financial harm (e.g. loss of wages due to inability to go to work or loss of an income-earning family member due to immigration enforcement actions).
• Income criteria: (e.g. anyone, anyone less than 50% AMI, anyone less than 80% AMI, etc.).
• Proof of eligibility either through requiring the applicant to provide third-party documentation (e.g. paystubs, lease agreement, immigration enforcement notification, etc.) or requiring the applicant to verify and attest program eligibility.
• Repayment criteria (e.g. rent must be repaid within 12 months).
Rental Assistance Program
A City-funded rental assistance program for undocumented persons would need to adequately prevent fraud while also maintaining privacy and security for undocumented program participants. This would be challenging for the following reasons:
• Any information that the City receives from an applicant would be subject to subpoena by a federal immigration agency. This, and the fear of unintentional information leaks, may make potential applicants hesitant to apply for the program, or provide bank account information to the City, if they have one.
• Undocumented persons may not be able to provide proof of income and rent paid, in which case the City would need to rely on personal attestation.
• The program would need to rely on personal-attestation that a person is undocumented. If the program is opened to households where one household member has been detained or deported by a federal immigration agency or is facing removal proceedings, the applicant may have associated paperwork that they could provide as part of the application.
• It may be difficult to ensure that the City’s funding is used to pay rent, instead of some other expense.
A potential option to address the foregoing challenges, could be for the City to partner with an outside nonprofit organization to distribute rental assistance. The partner organization could operate the program according to Culver City’s guidelines, but may be able to anonymize information provided to the City and withhold details of the recipients. It is possible that the outside partner would be subject to the same subpoena as the City. It would be difficult to thoroughly audit such a program, if the City could not be certain of who is receiving the funding.
Another option may be for the City to give the rental assistance payments directly to landlords, on behalf of the program participants. That would require a tenant to inform a landlord that they qualify, which many tenants may be afraid to do.
Should the City Council direct staff to design and bring back a rental assistance program, along with the necessary budget amendment to fund the program, the following policy direction would need to be given:
1. Total overall budget for the program (e.g. $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, etc.). Any funding would need to be appropriated from the General Fund Contingency Reserve.
2. Maximum amount of monthly assistance per family (i.e. $1,000/month, $2,000/month, not to exceed actual monthly rent, etc.).
3. Maximum length of time of assistance (e.g. one month, three months, one year, etc.).
4. Frequency of assistance payments (e.g. monthly, quarterly or lump sum payment).
5. Qualifications for eligibility (e.g. resident of Culver City, works full time or part time in Culver City, or has a child attending a public or private K-12 school in Culver City).
6. Proof of eligibility either through requiring the applicant to provide third-party documentation (e.g. paystubs, lease agreement, immigration enforcement notification, etc.) or requiring the applicant and/or third-party organization administering the program on behalf of the City to verify and attest program eligibility.
7. Immigration Status Criteria (e.g. undocumented immigrant status; and/or one household member has been detained or deported by ICE or another federal immigration agency; and/or one household member is facing removal proceedings; and/or part of a mixed-status household experiencing financial hardship due to immigration enforcement).
8. Income criteria: (e.g. anyone, anyone less than 50% AMI, anyone less than 80% AMI, etc.).
9. Should the City partner with a third-party organization to operate the program, or operate the program in-house?
FISCAL ANALYSIS
There is no fiscal impact from discussing and giving direction on either of these subjects.
Funding for a rental assistance program was not included in the Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. If the City Council directs staff to implement a rental assistance program, a budget amendment appropriating the funds from the General Fund Contingency Reserve would be required (four-fifths vote requirement). Based on the Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, the General Fund Contingency Reserve is projected to be $41.4 million at the end of the fiscal year. This is approximately 21.6% of the General Fund operating expenses, which is below the 30% target for this reserve.
ATTACHMENTS
None.
MOTION(S)
That the City Council:
1. Discuss and, if desired, provide direction on an eviction moratorium for persons impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions; and/or
2. Discuss and, if desired, provide direction on a pause in rent increases for persons impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions; and/or
3. Discuss and, if desired, provide direction on a rental assistance program for persons impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions.
4. Provide other direction to the City Manager as deemed appropriate.