CALIFORNIA, USA — Hundreds of thousands of California renters facing eviction next week could get another three months of protection under a bill top legislative leaders endorsed on Thursday.
The federal government sent billions of dollars to the states to help people who fell behind on their rent payments during the pandemic. California's program will pay for 100% of people's unpaid rent if they meet certain income requirements.
State law says tenants cannot be evicted as long as they have an application pending for rental assistance. But that law is set to expire on March 31. Meanwhile, so many people have applied for assistance that it is taking state officials longer than they thought to hand out the money.
As of Tuesday, just over 275,600 people had applications still pending, according to the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. That number doesn't include assistance programs operated by local governments. State officials won't be able to approve all of those applications by March 31. Starting April 1, anyone who has unpaid rent can be evicted.
At the last moment, state lawmakers have decided to intervene. Thursday, two lawmakers introduced a bill that would extend eviction protections for people with pending applications through the end of June. Lawmakers plan to have public hearings on the bill next week before voting to send it to Gov. Gavin Newsom on March 31.
It's unclear if Newsom will sign it. The state has extended eviction protections multiple times during the pandemic, always over the objections of landlords who say they are being squeezed by, in some cases, going more than a year without receiving rent payments. Last year, Newsom said the chances of extending protections again were "very modest." His office did respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Several California local governments had planned to pass their own eviction protections to take effect April 1 if the state protections expire. But the bill introduced Thursday in the state Legislature would prevent them from doing that until at least July 1. That's a major reason why the California Apartment Association — which represents landlords, investors and developers — supports it.
"Consistency is very important," said Debra Carlton, the group's executive vice president for state government affairs and compliance. "Our folks also believe that it is fair to protect those tenants who have applied through March 31 for money."
The bill is expected to move quickly through the Legislature. Thursday, the Legislature's top two leaders — Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, both Democrats — released a joint statement saying the bill "will receive quick action."
"We made a commitment to those who are in line and they shouldn't be harmed because of how long the process is taking," Rendon and Atkins said in a joint statement.
The extension will benefit people like Jenise Dixon, whose application for rental assistance has been pending since October. Dixon says she has lived in the same rent-controlled Los Angeles apartment for 19 years. She said she worked in the entertainment industry, but hasn't had steady work since the pandemic started and soon fell behind on her rent payments.
"I'm one step away from homelessness," she said.
But her application for rental assistance is stuck because neither she or her landlord can produce a lease. She said she's submitted utility bills and other evidence to prove she lives in the apartment, but to no avail.
"Even if I'm approved, it's not going to cover all the months that I'm behind," she said Tuesday during a news conference organized by housing advocates urging for an extension of eviction protections. "I'm just asking the people at the top, the lawmakers, to give the system a chance to catch up so that people like me don't fall through the cracks."
California's eviction assistance program will stop taking new applications on April 1, so the proposed law would only protect people who have applied for assistance by that date.
"It would be cruel, wasteful, and unfair to subject these Californians to eviction or the loss of rental income now, when they have done everything asked of them, and distribution of their emergency rental assistance is imminent," said Assemblymember Tim Grayson, a Democrat from Concord who co-authored the bill along with Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks.
So far, California paid out nearly $2.5 billion in rental assistance to just over 214,000 households, for an average assistance of $11,488. State officials say most of the money has gone to very low or extremely low income households that earn less than 50% of their area's median income. The program could soon run out of money. State officials had asked for an additional $1.9 billion from the federal government, but so far have only received an about $200 million.
But tenants shouldn't have to worry. Last month, Newsom signed a law allowing state money to cover the costs of the program should the federal money not cover all of it.
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