Eviction measure comes with a wish
Supporters say federal aid is needed to protect renters, landlords
California lawmakers’ stopgap measure on evictions has a wish built into it — a Democratic victory in November.
The emergency measure signed Monday provides some statewide protection through January but drew mixed reviews and protests demanding more aid for the state’s most vulnerable renters.
About 150 community activists demonstrated Tuesday afternoon in front of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, calling for an end to all evictions during the
pandemic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, lawmakers and supporters of the measure say the cashstrapped
state needs the support of the federal government to afford subsidies for struggling landlords and tenants. California lawmakers already have stitched up a $54 billion budget hole created by the economic slowdown during the pandemic.
Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said a victory by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is key to getting federal support.
New federal aid has been stalled under President Donald Trump and the Republican-led U.S. Senate. The new tenant protection law sunsets Feb. 1, weeks after the presidential inauguration.
“The federal government needs to step up,” said Chiu, the bill’s author. “The states can’t do this on their own.”
The proposal bans evictions based on unpaid rent between March and August and requires tenants to pay 25% of
their rents between Sept. 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2021, to prevent court-ordered displacement. The law does not wipe out unpaid rent, and landlords can pursue the debt in civil court. Unpaid rent beginning in February 2021 can be the cause of evictions.
Tenants must prove they have been affected by the pandemic to get relief. High-income renters must provide documents backing up their request. Local protections, enacted in most Bay Area counties and cities, also sunset under the proposal.
The law also requires
landlords to give their tenants written instructions about their rights, including materials in the tenants’ native languages.
Chiu said the state will need to engage in an aggressive education campaign to promote the new rights to tenants. He said lawmakers will hold bankers to promises made to help small landlords running late on mortgage payments.
Despite an overwhelming, super-majority vote in the final hours of the legislative session, it seemed to truly please no one. Some landlords felt the measure would not help small rental property owners pay their mortgages and expenses, while some tenant advocates worry the complex
regulations will not do enough to prevent evictions for the most vulnerable.
“It’s really confusing,” said Michael Trujillo, staff attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. “It’s going to mean a lot of tenants miss out on these protections.”
Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, said the measure will give poor tenants at least some new protections.
The demand is great. The nonprofit has received 30 times more requests for aid this year during the pandemic, mostly from poor Black and Latinx families, she said. Even with the new curbs on evictions, she said, renters will struggle. “It’s still extremely stressful,” Loving said.
Sid Lakireddy, president of the California Rental Housing Association, said small landlords recognize the economic pressures and work with their tenants. Both sides need help, and a relief fund to support the industry, drawing from state and federal funds, is the solution, he said.
“We all recognize it’s a stopgap measure that isn’t perfect,” he said.
Newsom acknowledged that the state will need more help to address the economic instability and possible displacement faced by renters during the pandemic.
“We need a real, federal commitment of significant new funding to assist struggling tenants and homeowners in California and
across the nation,” the governor said in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic has clipped the state economy, and nearly 8 million California workers have applied for unemployment benefits since widespread shutdowns in mid-March. A statewide moratorium enacted by the Judicial Council of California banning most court hearings on evictions expired at midnight Tuesday.
Others were more vocal in their protests.
In Oakland on Tuesday afternoon, community activists showed up on Oak Street at the County of Alameda Administration building, demanding a sweeping ban on all evictions, rent cancellation and reallocation of sheriff’s funds.
“If you’re going to shut evictions down, shut down everything. Shut down all evictions, shut down the bills, shut it down,” said LaShai Daniels, a speaker at the event who is with the housing activist group Moms 4 Housing. Daniels said she was evicted in November and has been unhoused despite having a job.
Carroll Fife, who is running for District 3 in the Oakland City Council race, complained that residents are being asked to pay one quarter of their rent between September and January. “Where are they going to get that 25% from? No one got a 25% boost. Unemployed people cannot pay 25% from their zero income.”