Hey Church Family,
I hope you all are doing well. Given the recent holidays and COVID surge, this listserv took a couple of weeks off while there was not a lot happening on a city-wide level. However, now that we are reaching the end of January, I wanted to put before you an issue pressing this week!
Last year, when the legislature finished its session in September, the widespread hope was that California had seen the worst of the health and economic impacts of COVID. The legislature created a bill (AB 3088) to create a way for renters and landlords to avoid evictions while the pandemic was still going on. Part of the bill asked that renters pay at least 25% of their rent by January 31st to stay in their housing. If they did that, they were able to avoid being evicted.
However, as we have seen, the last few months have been the worst yet for COVID in our city (and state). Because of COVID and its impacts, many folks in our city and state are now at risk of facing eviction or just not having a pathway to pay their back rent. From my conversations in our community, there are many folks for whom this is an issue: some have not been working since COVID-started, some have been out of work for a month or two. Many have understanding landlords, and many have faced threats and harassment. But they all are in a tough spot if there is no progress.
Thankfully, it appears the state legislature is going to vote on a bill this week (AB 80/SB 91) that would try to make this housing situation more tenable for all parties (fun fact: it also a “Budget Trailer Bill,” if you remember the talk that Yoshi gave us back in September!)
You can read more about it in the LA Times (or you can also read the tweet thread below by clicking the tweet):
This bill would do three main things:
It would extend the eviction moratorium from Jan 31st to June 30th
It would create a state relief program to repay 25% of all unpaid rental debt for qualifying renters, using stimulus and state funds
For Landlords who agree to forgive 20% of unpaid debt, it would guarantee the payment of 80% of unpaid debt on behalf of the renter by the state.
Now, to be clear, some people are not happy with this bill. Some renters advocates worry that the money will not go far enough and that some renters may be left out. There are also landlords and property managers worried about being taken advantage of, worrying about securing funds to pay their mortgage. At the same time, they wait on the state program to get up and running. Having had conversations with folks in our church, I know that there are people within our church who feel both ways!
I agree that it is not a perfect bill. But COVID is a crisis, and it is important not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. To me, it is a better proposal than the status quo for those in our community. It gives people more opportunities to stay in their homes rather than facing possible homelessness during the pandemic. It also creates a pathway out of massive debt for both landlords and tenants. Often, the best solution in the short-run is to accept the best available compromise. I think this is a situation where this is true.
What Can You Do?
You can do things right now to help this along:
You can write to your legislator telling them to support the measure extending this “eviction cliff” until the summer when we all hope the economy will be recovering. Here is a tool you can use to do that
You can reach out to people you know who may be struggling with unpaid rent. It really matters that this information gets out widely in the community. There are two excellent tools folks should be aware of
Stay Housed LA is a tool that folks can use to learn about the current rules and draft a letter to their landlord that documents their situation and will help them get into a repayment plan
2021 Rent Relief Notification Signup will help folks get notified as soon as
As always, you can reach out to me if you need help or have questions. Thanks for your time and care!
Thomas