CommentsRENTER PROTECTION--With eviction protections set to expire state officials scrambled to put in place a plan to extend these protections.
Unfortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who brokered the deal, came up short as their plan has loopholes that could exclude some struggling tenants who may end up being evicted.
Instead of giving Californians security with long-term relief and renter protections through the end of the pandemic, our state leaders caved to the interests of landlords and realtors and came up with what they call a “compromise.”
Big realtors and big landlords have entrenched influence in Sacramento and they spend millions of dollars both electing and lobbying our governor and state legislators — and it pays off.
The plan will extend the eviction moratorium through June and offer debt rent relief to California’s lowest income tenants — but only if landlords accept 80% of that debt as full repayment.
Under the bill, to be eligible for that protection, tenants must sign a “declaration of hardship” that they have been impacted by the pandemic and must pay at least 25% of their rent due between September 1 and June 30. However, tenants would still be responsible for paying the remaining 75%, and their landlords could still sue them to demand payment.
The state would pay landlords 80% of the total rent debt accrued between April 2020 and March 2021 — but only if landlords agree to forgive the remaining 20% and pledge not to evict tenants.
If landlords refuse that deal, the state would pay them 25% of their tenants’ unpaid rent. That would supposedly provide for those tenants to qualify for the state’s eviction protections and could not be kicked out of their homes until after June 30, unless protections are, again, extended.
Assembly Member David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote the original eviction moratorium and introduced another bill to instead extend protections to the end of the year, said it was “troubling” that the amount of debt renters will have paid off is “determined solely by the cooperation of their landlord.”
“The power imbalance between tenants and landlords is troubling as the amount of rental assistance a tenant receives is determined solely by the cooperation of their landlord,” Chiu said. “I expect there will be a need to revisit this legislation to address gaps and provide relief to additional tenants.”
The eviction moratorium must be extended until this pandemic ends. There needs to be a rent relief program in which it is mandatory that all landlords must participate and one where all renters are eligible regardless of their immigration status.
Tenants needing advice, information or assistance can attend the Coalition for Economic Survival’s Tenants’ Rights Zoom Clinic held every Saturday at 10 am. Email [email protected] to request a link to register.
(Larry Gross is the Executive Director, Coalition for Economic Survival and a CityWatch contributor.)
-cw
