As eviction deadline nears, Bay Area housing officials turn to volunteers and nonprofits
Carol Lillig and the church ladies at St. Vincent de Paul in Morgan Hill have been helping struggling renters for a couple of decades — long before the pandemic throttled the work lives of landscapers, school bus drivers and child care workers.
On a recent weekday, Lillig sat outside the church on a folding chair across from Xiomara Galicia, a single mom, who lost her retail job at the beginning of the pandemic. Galicia, 36, has four schoolaged children, $123 in unpaid rent and an unemployment benefit about to end. She worried even a small blemish on her rent record would ruin future chances for housing. She needed help.
“To be behind is stressful, as you know” Lillig told her, and took photos of Galicia’s financial documents and uploaded them into an online relief application. Lillig told Galicia she should qualify to have her back rent covered and future rent paid for the next three months, under the complex formulas used by local and state agencies to reimburse landlords.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Galicia said. “I’m just really grateful.”
Lillig is part of an essential and growing piece of California’s knotty and faltering $5 billion rental relief effort — volunteers, part-time workers, community activists and do-gooders sitting side-by-side with delinquent renters, calling landlords and urging government agencies to send money ASAP.
About $500 million in federal funds is earmarked for the Bay Area, but how quickly it will be sent out and how many families it will help before the eviction ban ends this month remain looming questions.
Bay Area social agencies are leaning hard on smaller nonprofits and recruiting other institutions.
Santa Clara County courts have begun promoting the local relief efforts, trying to bridge the trust gap between landlords and tenants. One of the East Bay’s largest community organizations expects to double the number of social agencies it’s using for outreach. The state also has more than tripled its number of caseworkers.
Yet frustration continues to mount. The California relief program, supplemented by an additional $2 billion in aid for unpaid utility bills, has been marred by glitchy application websites, confusing requirements for local and state programs, and some skepticism among landlords and tenants.
“Progress has been glacial,” said Santa Clara County eviction attorney Todd Rothbard. He has reached out to housing officials to facilitate aid payments to his landlord clients — hoping to get batches of applications done uniformly and efficiently — but efforts have stalled, he said.
“The myth is that landlords are frothing at the bit to evict,” Rothbard said. “In most cases, all they want to do is get paid.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium last month has spurred federal officials to find ways to lower barriers to getting relief to tenants and landlords. The CDC ban had little effect in California, where tenant protections are more comprehensive. The state’s eviction moratorium expires Sept. 30, although renters can receive limited protections by applying for state assistance through March 2022.
California housing officials have received requests for $1.4 billion in relief and paid out $426 million — roughly 30% — since the program launched in March through Aug. 31, according to state data.