One consequence of the months-long writers and actors strikes in Los Angeles: a record number of Hollywood worker evictions and requests for rental assistance.
Actors, writers and crews have been impacted by both the work stoppage and an end to Covid tenant protections, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“People are becoming unhoused, they’re being evicted from their apartments and they’re not paying their mortgages so eventually they will lose their homes as well, ” Bob Beitcher, president of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, based in Woodland Hills, told the magazine.
“We’re talking to people who are living in their cars, in some cases with their families.”
Four months into the writers strike and almost two months into the actors strike, fear of losing their apartments and homes has gripped industry workers up and down the picket lines.
In July, Deadline reported an anonymous studio executive outlining a game plan to let the strikes drag on until union members lost their homes. The plan was confirmed by Annette Bening, chair of the New York-based Entertainment Community Fund, at a recent event.
Hollywood organizations have supported workers with grants, mostly to go toward rent and mortgages.
“Our director of social services in L.A. has been with us for 22 years and she just told me this morning that she’s never seen this many eviction notices in this short of a time period,” Keith McNutt, executive director of the Entertainment Community Fund’s western region, told the Hollywood Reporter.
As of late August, the fund has disbursed more than $5.4 million to more than 2,600 film and TV workers, averaging over $500,000 per week, with the greatest number of applications for financial assistance coming from California, mostly to help pay rent.
The Motion Picture fund has also boosted its financial aid to Hollywood workers, giving away $1,500 grants. “But it’s not going to keep the wolf at bay for long,” Beitcher told the magazine.
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation, based in Mid-Wilshire, got 10 to 12 applications a week for assistance before the strikes. It now averages 50 to 75 applications a day, according to Cyd Wilson, its executive director. Between 75 and 85 percent of those requests are to pay for rent and mortgages. One or two Hollywood workers a day receive eviction notices.
“People are moving in with relatives and friends, we do know that people are on couches — people that didn’t get to us before they actually got evicted — and so we’re offering them, ‘Do you want us to help you get into a new place or do you want us to help you catch up with your bills?’” Wilson said.
“I think there are a lot of people who are thinking ahead, thinking, if this goes through the end of the year, why would I get into a new apartment because I’ve got to make sure that I can make my car payment, my phone payment,” he added.
— Dana Bartholomew
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