At the Housing and Homelessness Committee's first 2025 meeting, city officials described an expanding enforcement effort after hundreds of complaints that landlords and other housing providers posted rent increases following recent wildfires.

The committee heard from the City Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD), the Community Investment for Families Department (CIFD) and the Mayor's Fund about steps the city has taken to receive reports, investigate possible violations and connect affected residents with services.

The City Attorney's Office said the state's price-gouging law applies once a declaration of emergency is in effect and generally prohibits advertising or charging "in excess of 10% higher than the rates that were charged before the declaration of emergency." The office told the committee it is receiving reports through a dedicated hotline and through 311, reviewing crowdsourced lists, and working with county and state law enforcement partners. "My report ... says, more than 700. Further updates that I received is getting we're we're getting closer to a 1,000 reports," the City Attorney's representative told the committee. The office said it has issued roughly 40 cease-and-desist letters and expects that number to rise: "By the end of today, I think that number will double," the official said.

City Attorney staff described both criminal and civil enforcement paths: criminal misdemeanor charges carry up to a year in jail and up to $10,000 in fines, the office said; civil remedies under the state's unfair-competition statutes can include injunctive relief, restitution and civil penalties.

LAHD General Manager Tina Johnson Hall told the committee the department does not have independent enforcement authority but is "ready to assist the city's attorneys" and is exploring financial-assistance options including use of federal and local disaster funds and Measure ULA dollars. "Our public information staff is trained to refer renters to our affordable and accessible housing registry," she said, identifying the registry at lahousing.lacity.org.

The Mayor's Fund described direct casework and legal-intake efforts that can help prevent evictions, including a partnership that has increased the number of people who can be connected to attorneys. "One of the big changes we've been able to put into place is a partnership with Eviction Defense Fund ... we're able to get 40 people a week directly represented by an attorney," the Mayor's Fund chief said, and urged the council to consider strengthening civil penalties and a private-attorney-fee provision to make enforcement easier.

CIFD said its Family Source Centers are proactively contacting clients and providing language-accessible materials; the department is also using tax-filing assistance to help people apply for FEMA and SBA disaster relief. "Many of our families are undocumented or in mixed status households, so they don't always come forward with these issues," CIFD's general manager said.

Officials told the committee they are consolidating complaint intake and planning an online 311 portal to collect structured information and evidence uploads. The City Attorney said staff and partners are already staffing a booth at the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center to help survivors file complaints, and that some complaints are being referred to the City Attorney's criminal unit or evaluated for civil unfair-competition litigation.

The committee directed departments to keep coordinating with state and county law enforcement and to return with more detail. LAHD and other departments agreed to report back to the committee next week on whether specific response activities are eligible for FEMA or other federal reimbursement.

Ending: City leaders said the enforcement push is ongoing and that the intake portal, expanded 311 processes and closer coordination with the mayor's fund and legal-service partners are intended to speed investigations and referrals. The City Attorney reiterated that enforcement can be both criminal and civil and urged survivors of evacuations or price increases to submit evidence via the soon-to-launch portal or at the FEMA recovery center booth.