CALIFORNIA, USA — Many people were protected from eviction during the pandemic.
Now, those protections are set to expire April 1, and local organizations are sounding the alarm. Sacramento resident Rodney Davis is one of the people caught in an uncomfortable position.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do if SERA 2 (Sacramento Emergency Rental Assistance) does not kick in in the next day or if this moratorium is not extended,” Davis said.
Davis lost his job because of the pandemic, and he is months behind on rent. The Sacramento Emergency Rental Assistance program in Sacramento is tasked with getting rent relief funds out locally. Davis said he applied months ago. At first, he had some communication regarding his case, then last fall, he just stopped hearing from them.
“Communicate with people. I understand and can appreciate that there are thousands of people that they have helped. They have helped me in the past. But as of since October, I have not got any assistance,” Davis said.
He’s not alone. The program says on its website it has a backlog of over 30,000 applicants seeking rent relief. Davis said he’s worried about what he’ll do if nothing changes before the eviction moratorium expires.
“I just recently started back working. Great, I’m happy about that, but I just started. I mean, I barely even got a paycheck yet,” Davis said.
Jovana Fajardo is the director of the Sacramento Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment [ACCE] office, a nonprofit organization dedicated to housing justice.
“We’ve heard from tenants who have already been approved but have not gotten the money from the program statewide or locally," Fajardo said. "And so, they’re in the tough position of like, ‘We know the money is supposed to be coming. I thought that was settled. But now I have to figure out what’s happening.’”
This is the heart of the problem. Many people will not have received the money already set aside for rent relief. They likely won’t receive it either before the statewide eviction moratorium expires in one week.
“As of a couple weeks ago in Sacramento, they only paid out one-third of the money, but they were already backlogged by 30,000 applicants,” Fajardo said.
She said tenants are caught in the middle.
“Here in Sacramento, the SERA 2 program is telling landlords that if they want to get their money sooner than later, to start the eviction process on the tenants so they could go on the top of the list,” Fajardo said.
Davis has a message for lawmakers.
“I think we’re almost at a point of a crisis, and I think that could be circumvented if the governmental officials extend this moratorium,” he said.
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