Renters desperate for Legislature’s help
Headaches, stomachaches and nausea sent Elena Sabay to the doctor, who told her that she was just stressed. Owing $6,000 in rent will make a person feel sick to their stomach. Sabay, a hotel housekeeper who lost her job when the pandemic shut down California, hasn’t worked since March 15.
Meanwhile, the rent still comes due. She doesn’t pay it, of course, because she doesn’t have the money — and because city, county and state law prohibits evictions of tenants who’ve lost their jobs due to the shutdown.
But the rent is still hanging over her head.
“We’re in debt for $6,000 already,” Sabay told me as we sat in the living room of the East Oakland apartment she shares with her husband and three children. “It’s like a constant debt. You want to pay off what you owe, but the next month is coming.”
Oakland’s eviction moratorium will be in place until the City Council lifts the local state of emergency. But these questions must be answered soon:
What happens after the moratorium expires? How will the back rent be paid?
Losing a job or having hours cut during the pandemic puts renters at risk of accruing massive debt that will be difficult to pay off. At worst, they could face eviction. The California Legislature must do something to ensure renters
can stay in their homes until they get back on their feet.
The state’s elected officials have one job to do before they adjourn at the end of the month: Keep people housed.
“It really should be the role of government to provide a safety net for everyone, especially during times like this,” Oakland Councilwoman Nikki Fortunato Bas told me. “It’s out of people’s control that they’re not working, that they may not be able to pay the bills. We need to have some mechanisms to make sure that people don’t become homeless.”
Two bills moving through the Legislature are somewhat promising. According to reporting by my colleague Alexei Koseff, AB1436 would “prohibit landlords from evicting tenants who cannot pay their rent because of a loss of income before April 1, 2021, or 90 days after the end of the statewide state of emergency, whichever is sooner.” Renters in arrears would then have another year to, somehow, come up with thousands of dollars in late rent.
Another bill, SB1410, would give landlords tax credits equal to the amount of rent. Starting in 2024, landlords could use the credits or sell them sooner for cash. Tenants would pay back their rent interestfree to the state over the course of a decade, also starting in 2024. If they don’t pay, the state would be on the hook for any money it doesn’t recover, a bill that could reach billions of dollars.
Both measures would need a twothirds majority vote to take effect immediately. The Legislature adjourns Aug. 28.
“It really puts pressure on the Legislature to act,” Assemblyman Rob Bonta, DAlameda, said. “I think we can do it. The pressure’s on us to act. We can’t be leaving our tenants in a lurch.”
Almost half of all renters in the Bay Area — 48% — were rent burdened the pandemic, according to the National Equity Atlas, a report card on racial and economic equity released in July. People who are rent burdened are spending too big a percentage of their pay on rent. After spending money on necessities like a cell phone, food and other bills, there isn’t much left over to put away for a rainy day or a pandemic.
The National Equity Atlas is a collaboration between PolicyLink, an Oaklandbased nonprofit focused on advancing racial and economic equity, and the USC Equity Research Institute.
In Oakland, 52% of all renters are rent burdened, but the burden is, unsurprisingly, greatest for people color. Almost twothirds of Black renters — 64% — are rent burdened. Next are Latinos at 55%, Native Americans at 54% and Asians at 51%. White people have the lowest rent burden in Oakland and the Bay Area, at 38% and 41%, respectively.
“You see that nearly half of the renters in the Bay Area are overpaying for rent, but it’s disproportionately renters of color,” Sarah Treuhaft, vice president of research at PolicyLink, said. “What you see with rent burden is a picture of how inequality is affecting Bay Area residents.”
People of color are more likely to rent than own. In the Bay Area, 61% of white households own their homes compared with just 32% of Black households, according to Treuhaft.
“If you look at renters, you’re already looking at a dimension of equity,” she said. “That, of course, relates to policies that are inequitable, that have prevented Black people (and) brown people from owning homes at the same rate as white people.
“If we don’t do something to prevent this eviction tsunami, the racial inequity we see in the Bay Area will be exacerbated.”
Time is running out for renters desperate for help from government.
Last week, California judicial leaders voted to allow state courts to resume hearings on Sept. 2 for evictions of tenants for nonpayment of rent. The ban was scheduled to expire Aug. 3, but the Judicial Council decided to give legislators more time to come up with a fix. They’ve got eight days.
Sabay told me her daughters always ask her what’s wrong. She’s tried to find another job. Her husband, Alfredo Romero, picks up shifts delivering furniture to the homes of people who presumably don’t get sick worrying about paying bills.
“My daughter makes fun of me, saying, ‘Mom, we’re looking like we’re going to become homeless,’ ” Sabay said.
She held her chest as she laughed.