The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to extend the county’s rent eviction moratorium three months through Sept. 30 to allow residents more time to get back on their feet as the economy begins to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“As the economy gets back to pre-pandemic levels, it is incumbent that we find a way to phase out the eviction moratorium, but based on what I’m hearing, now is not the time,” said county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose 5th District includes the Santa Clarita Valley.

This was a notion the board agreed on, also using the motion to start work on plans for phasing out protections and encouraging tenants to apply for available state and local rent relief in order to also support landlords.

The move comes as California’s eviction moratorium is set to expire June 30, and though the state’s legislators are considering extending it as well as absolving more low-income renters from their debts, Barger highlighted the delay in doing so in a statement issued following the vote.

“We continue to push for changes to the state’s rent relief program, to ensure that this significant funding has a real impact to help offset rental debt for tenants and provide relief for landlords,” Barger said in the statement. “We are also hoping that the state will finally take action on its own eviction moratorium, which supersedes the county’s, to give our constituents clarity on what is next to come. In the meantime, we will continue to work with property owners, tenants and community-based organizations to prevent individuals from falling into homelessness and to find ways to bring relief to small, mom-and-pop landlords.”

The county moratorium applies for residential tenants unable to pay rent due to COVID-19-related financial hardships where it does not overlap with the state’s protections.

The motion was ultimately passed with a number of amendments, including requiring tenants to make a good faith effort to apply for applicable local and state rent relief programs to be protected from eviction.