Deal would extend ban on evictions
Extension through June 30 would give renters, small landlords some stability
Heading off a potential wave of housing disruption, Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers on Monday announced a deal to extend the state’s ban on evictions through June.
The agreement would give breathing room to struggling renters and allow the state to distribute $2.6 billion in federal aid to landlords impacted by the economic upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic. The compromise comes days before the scheduled Jan. 31 expiration of California’s eviction moratorium.
Newsom said in a statement that an extension through June 30 would give renters and small landlords some stability and protect community health as the state continues to battle the pandemic and rush vaccines to vulnerable residents and front-line workers. Lawmakers expect to vote on the proposal this week as part of the state budget package.
“This eviction moratorium and rapid deployment of funds to the most at-risk are among our top priorities,” Newsom said. “But we have more work to do, together, to tackle the structural housing cost crisis in California.”
Housing experts estimate hundreds of thousands of California renters could be at risk of losing their homes if the health crisis deepens.
Sam Tepperman-gelfant, managing attorney at Public Advocates, said the measure is “a very important step to prevent the eviction cliff” looming on Feb. 1. But he added that tenant groups were shut out of negotiations, creating loopholes that could be exploited by property owners.
The compromise announced Monday lays out a broad road map for distributing federal relief funds arriving this month. The state will pay landlords 80% of back rent owed between April 2020 and March 2021. Landlords must agree to waive the remaining 20% of debt and not pursue evictions.
Alternately, landlords can choose to receive payment of just 25% of back rent, while keeping their rights to sue for unpaid rent and to remove a tenant.
Tenants may be eligible for partial help for up to three months of future rent as well. The federal funds are targeted at landlords serving low-income tenants, with most aid helping families making less than half of the median household income in a region.
Property owners must notify tenants about the availability of rental assistance and cannot go forward with an eviction without first providing that notification.
Tenants must meet certain criteria to be protected. They must declare they have lost income because of the pandemic. They will also be protected from eviction if they pay at least 25% of their rent owed since September 2020.
The state plans to distribute the federal aid through block grants.
Large cities and counties, such as San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, will also receive some funds directly from the federal government.
Municipalities are banned from enacting new restrictions on evictions.
Assemblymember David Chiu, D-san Francisco, said the proposal provides important, shortterm relief for struggling renters and small landlords. But Chiu, chair of the housing and community development committee who proposed extending the ban through the end of 2021, said more needs to be done.
Chiu said he will continue to focus on bolstering renter protections and ensuring relief quickly gets into the right hands. “We will be monitoring closely the speed at which the money is going out,” he said.
The compromise struck between Newsom and legislative leaders comes amid mounting concerns for millions of unemployed workers and their landlords. State budget officials estimate renters owe $400 million; a recent federal analysis put the total California Covid-related debt at around $1.7 billion.
Bay Area advocates say low-income renters are desperate for relief.
Alicia Rios lost her job as a hotel housekeeper shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
The single mother has struggled to pay bills, owes about $8,000 in back rent and relies on food banks and aid to feed her three daughters. Rios, 37, worries her family could be forced from their twobedroom apartment in Oakland.
“I’m afraid and really scared,” Rios said through an interpreter. “I could end up on the streets with my girls.”
Rios, a member the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, wants to get back to work and hopes government or private aid will settle her unpaid debt.
In the meantime, her family is just trying to survive. “I’ve been doing miracles,” she said, “with the little money I get.”
Contact Louis Hansen at 408920-5043.
SAN JOSE >> As President Joe Biden settled into the Oval Office on Jan. 20, Rachel Garcia was happy to see a bust of civil rights leader and farm workers’ union organizer César Chávez in a prominent spot right behind the Resolute Desk.
For many, Chávez represents the struggles of farm workers across California and the country who organized for unions and better working conditions at a time when they faced racial prejudice and systematic silencing.
But for Garcia, who is Chávez’s great-niece, he is just “tío.”
Standing in the courtyard of her childhood home — the same house on the East Side of San Jose that the Chicano leader lived in from 1951 to 1953 while he labored at nearby apricot orchards — Garcia said she was honored to see that Biden chose her great-uncle to honor in the Oval Office.
“It kind of gives you hope,” she said, flanked by an apricot tree to her left. “It makes me think that he’ll help the people. That’s what my tio was about. If that’s who he looks up to then I feel very honored and hopeful.”
Chávez is among several American leaders Biden has chosen to display in the Oval Office, including a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a massive portrait of Franklin Roosevelt, a painting of Benjamin Franklin and others. The bust of Chávez is surrounded by photos of the president’s family.
Garcia said she’d like to meet the president and ask him why he chose to honor Chávez. Though she didn’t get a chance to know him very well, as she was only a child at the time her great-uncle was making history. She said she remembers his positive energy and noted that the legacy he left with his family has left a lasting imprint in her life.
She said she has focused on living the life of nonviolence that Chávez advocated for. In his struggle to unionize Mexican immigrants working in the fertile valleys of California, Chávez — like other civil rights leaders of the time — advocated for peaceful demonstrations and holding power to account via nonbelligerent means.
“It wasn’t just the nonviolence thing,” Garcia said. “He was brave enough to be a voice to the voiceless.”
On his first day in office, Biden took several far-reaching steps to undo his predecessor’s landmark executive orders restricting immigration to the U.S. The president signed executive orders halting construction of the border wall with Mexico, lifted a travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries and reversed plans to exclude people here illegally from the 2020 census.
Biden also has promised to work to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act, a program started in 2012 shielding hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as kids from being deported.
Garcia said she hopes that by keeping Chávez at the top of his mind, in the same way he keeps Chávez’s bust in his office, Biden will continue to advocate for immigrants and farm workers.
Recalling the grueling conditions farm workers had to endure in California last year — beaten by unceasing heat and choked by wildfire smoke — Garcia said farmworkers and immigrant workers face tough jobs today. She said she wants Biden to focus on helping working people.
“I want him to ask himself ‘what would César do?’ in the White House,” Garcia said. “I’d like to know why he looks up to him, why he would use him as an example and what he means for him. For us, he’s a pillar of the community. It says a lot to me that he chose him to honor.”