Document Type

Cal State Document

Publication Date

10-2016

Abstract

In 1997, the City of Los Angeles sponsored legislation (Havice, Ch. 613, Statutes of 1998) to allow city attorneys or district attorneys to evict tenants engaged in drug-related activity, arguing that landlords often did not “in large part due to a fear of retaliation.” This bill changed the law in two ways. It allowed an entity other than the landlord to initiate an eviction action and it enabled a court to issue a partial eviction of tenants. By enabling partial evictions, the state provided the court with a tool to target only the tenant(s) engaged in unlawful drug activities and not an entire household. The resulting pilot program allowed five Los Angeles County court districts to participate.

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