Wells Fargo donates $400K to area tenant legal efforts

With a looming eviction crisis, Wells Fargo has donated $400,000 to Bay Area Legal Aid to support renters in court.

California’s eviction moratorium ends in February, and aid workers estimate as many as 150,000 Bay Area renters could be at risk of displacement. The COVID-19 pandemic has sent unemployment soaring among blue-collar workers, and many have fallen behind in housing payments.

Bay Area counties and cities have enacted a collection of specific, temporary tenant protections during the pandemic which will expire in coming months.

“We expect to see many low-income renters facing eviction for nonpayment of rent in the next several months,” said Lisa Greif, housing supervising attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid. “The patchwork of protections is complicated, so it is essential for tenants to get legal advice and help. The bottom line right now is if your landlord serves you a notice to pay rent or you get other legal paperwork — call us at Bay Area Legal Aid.”

More than half of San Francisco and East Bay renters have lost income during the pandemic, according to research by Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. About 4 in 10 California renters behind on payments said they were worried about being evicted in coming months.

The crisis has been hardest among communities of color, according to Berkeley researchers. Roughly 1 in 5 Latino households reports being behind on rent; about 1 in 10 Asian and Black households is in a similar strait.

Many tenants, especially non-English-speaking residents, are confused about their legal rights and the patchwork of protections, said Bay Area Legal Aid spokesperson Taylor Brady.

The grant will be used to support outreach to vulnerable communities, as well as legal advice through hotlines and in courthouses, Brady said. The pro bono agency has seen an increase in demand for its services during the pandemic. Many calls are coming from residents speaking Spanish, Chinese or Vietnamese.

“The landscape of this is intensely complicated,” Brady said. “Don’t wait. Seek out legal advice.”

The grant is part of Wells Fargo’s $175 million nationwide response to the pandemic. The San Franciscobased financial institution said it has donated $18.4 million to Bay Area relief efforts during the health crisis.

Wells Fargo spokesperson Edith Robles said the bank has an existing relationship with Bay Area Legal Aid and saw the need. “Housing is a large issue,” Robles said. “This is another way Wells Fargo is supporting low-income renters.”

In July, the bank gave $750,000 to the United Way Bay Area to help struggling renters make payments.

Authorities are looking into accusations that a Monte Sereno city councilwoman illegally voted twice in California and Oregon for years, raising the question of how could someone repeatedly cast ballots in two states?

The alleged fraud comes to light during a year where election integrity already is under scrutiny. President Trump has been criticized for suggesting without evidence that mail-in ballots used across the country as the coronavirus pandemic rages are vulnerable to such fraud.

But while election experts acknowledge that policing the one-person, one-vote principal across state lines is difficult, they say violations are rare.

“Is it happening frequently? No, I don’t think so,” said Kim Alexander, founder and president of the California Voter Foundation, a Sacramento nonprofit dedicated to improving the voting process. “This is definitely a situation where voters are policing themselves. The burden is on the voter to adhere to the law and the penalty to not adhere to the law is a felony. I think that does effectively deter pretty much most people.”

In Monte Sereno, the double-voting allegations against Rowena C. Turner, 71, came as the former teacher and marketing manager for several