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Eviction Protections Are Gone & Landlords Are Now Learning to Fight – Literally

 

Landlords in the Los Angeles market are bracing for potential altercations with tenants who have not paid their rent as eviction moratoria come to an end. To prepare for such scenarios, the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles is offering self-defense classes to property managers and landlords, as reported by Capital & Main. The advocacy group has enlisted the help of former police officers from the Health and Safety Institute in Oregon to assist with training landlords for possible attacks from disgruntled tenants or transients.

The recent conflicts between tenants and landlords in the wake of the pandemic led the apartment association to organize the classes, according to Dan Yukelson, the group’s executive director. The course, known as Active Violence Emergency Response Training, covers topics such as stopping life-threatening bleeding, maintaining full situational awareness, taking cover from bullets, and disarming shooters.

The class also includes instructions on how to prevent mass shootings. Yukelson took the course last year amid concerns about increasing violence against landlords. The City of Los Angeles’ eviction moratorium ended on January 31, while the county’s protection is set to expire on March 31. The apartment association had sued both the city and county over their eviction protections and lobbied to end the moratorium. In response, the city enacted a renters protection package requiring just-cause evictions.