Part One of a series on unpermitted housing in L.A.
Part Two will explore the dramatic decline in city housing inspections during the pandemic and what that has meant for tenants struggling to keep a roof over their head.
Part Three will focus on a city program designed to bring illegal housing units up to code and give owners a path to legalization and how it has fallen short of expectations.
At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered residents to remain in their homes as much as possible. With a deadly new virus spreading, he said, “One thing is crystal clear in the fog of these days: We are all safer at home.”
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A number of public interest attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to halt in-person traffic and eviction trials held in Los Angeles County, claiming COVID-19 prevention protocols are failing after two court interpreters who were infected died in recent weeks.
The suit, brought by Public Counsel,the Inner City Law Center,Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
and Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, accuses the courts of prioritizing the “continuity of nonessential operations over community safety and human life.”
“The court’s facilities are built and administered in a way that makes it impossible to maintain a safe social distance of six feet or more, particularly within crowded and poorly ventilated courtrooms and hallways. Every day, hundreds of Angelenos crowd into the county’s courthouses to enter pleas on traffic tickets or defend against eviction lawsuits,” the suit read. “Public health experts have determined that not only are these cond