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The Los Angeles City Council balked Wednesday at imposing a ban on evictions that goes farther than the restrictions it has already passed, voting 7 to 6 against a stricter moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The broader ban proposed by Councilmen Mike Bonin and David Ryu would have prohibited landlords from evicting tenants “except to protect the health and safety of other occupants of the property” during the coronavirus crisis.

The proposal spurred a lengthy and impassioned debate about the legal limits of what the city could do to protect tenants, with some council members publicly disputing concerns raised by the city attorney’s office.

Council members have already barred landlords from evicting people who have been affected by the novel coronavirus, but critics complain that the rules don’t go far enough to help renters, especially those who have little paperwork to later prove that their financial woes are related to the pandemic.

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