Housing advocates and lawmakers turned up the pressure Wednesday on Gov. Gavin Newsom to increase tenant protections, as April rent comes due for many unemployed workers worried about the threat of evictions.
Two leading housing advocates in the state legislature, Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember David Chiu, urged Newsom to strengthen an order issued last week offering temporary protections from some evictions.
“The last thing we need is people to have to focus on keeping their housing during this health epidemic,” said Wiener, D-San Francisco. “The last thing we need is a wave of mass evictions during this pandemic or immediately after.”
Meanwhile, some Bay Area housing advocates joined state and national campaigns calling for a range of relief, from waivers of rent and mortgages to outright rent strikes until emergency pandemic measures cease.
Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas urged immediate debt relief for renters, homeowners and small landlords unable to pay housing costs. “It’s time to unite,” Bas said in an interview. “We really need to make policy choices to set people up for the long-term.”
The mounting pressure to give tenants, as well as some mortgage holders, greater relief comes as shelter-in-place orders and widespread layoffs and furloughs grind the California economy into low gear. Newsom estimated about 1.6 million Californians have filed for unemployment insurance since mid-March, equating to a jobless rate of more than 12 percent.
Newsom ordered a temporary, statewide halt to some evictions last week, allowing tenants to keep their housing through May if they are directly impacted by the pandemic.
The order requires renters to declare in writing they have lost work, fallen ill or been forced to care for family members. Landlords are prohibited from removing those residents for non-payment of rent through May 31, and stops law enforcement and courts from carrying out evictions.
Landlord groups have generally backed Newsom’s order, and are urging tenants to speak with property managers to arrange rent deferrals. But advocates say landlords can still file eviction papers, and remove tenants shortly after the moratorium ends.
More than 60 jurisdictions, including San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco and the counties of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda, have passed eviction moratoriums stronger than the state order.
Some landlords are responding. The Irvine Company, a major property owner based in Southern California, has set up a website for tenants facing hardship. It has announced a temporary halt to evictions through June 1.
Essex Property Trust, another major landlord based in San Mateo, has also halted evictions and rent hikes for 90 days, in addition to offering deferred payment plans.
Michael Trujillo, a lawyer with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, said the governor’s order does not fully protect renters. “We’re hearing a lot of fear and anxiety from tenants,” he said.
Wiener and Chiu, in a joint video appearance, praised Newsom’s leadership during the crisis, but said the governor had not gone far enough to prevent a second crisis following the pandemic — waves of evictions and foreclosures.
Wiener said he plans to introduce legislation¸ along with Assemblymember Phil Ting, to give greater protections to renters. Lawmakers are in recess, and some bills have yet to be printed.
Even before the coronavirus restrictions, Chiu said, “millions of Californians were already having problems paying their rent.”
Advocates and renters say adding debt to already stressed families could leave many homeless. Some are considering rent strikes.
Ricardo Zepeda, 44, lives in a three-bedroom apartment in Richmond with his wife, two adult children and a son-in-law. They all pitch in to pay the $1,600 a month rent. But Zepeda, who is disabled, and his family members have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Everyone in the family has either been laid off or had their work hours cut back severely, he said. Almost every other renter in the 8-unit complex has also been put out of work. The neighbors are discussing a rent strike as a way to make it through the crisis, he said.
“It seems like it’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Zepeda said. “Now, it’s a survival situation.”