CA renters’ protection from evictions expires in 4 days, on Sept 1! THREAD on what’s happening & what’s at stake -- 1/

@CalBudgetCenter

Why is this a crisis? Evictions are always traumatic for fams & indiv experiencing them – & evictions during #COVID19 mean serious health risks & public health risks, since #homelessness & doubling-up with family/friends increase risk of virus exposure & spread. 2/

Also race equity issue, bc Californians of color - esp Black & Latinx Californians - were most likely to struggle to afford housing preCOVID, & also more likely to have lost jobs due to pandemic. Immigrant Californians also esp affected. 3/
@AureoMesquita http://ctt.ec/19vWN+ 

Policy directly protecting CA renters from evictions now is CA Judicial Council’s order to pause virtually all eviction court proceedings – but that expires midnight next Tues 9/1. JC said judicial branch shd not be carrying responsibility for this – i.e. Leg/Gov need to act. 4/

(You might ask: What about Gov Newsom’s exec order to pause evictions? That didn’t really have teeth.
What about federal eviction moratorium? Didn’t cover all renters, & expired end July. Pres Trump followed up w exec order to explore extending, but didn’t actually extend.) 5/

Emerging proposal from #CALeg wd prohibit evictions due to COVID-related inability to pay rent, thru Feb 1. Similar to #AB1436. Leg has to vote on this by Mon 8/31. 6/

Details so far, not yet final: Renters wd have to pay 25% of unpaid rent by Feb & landlords cd seek rest in court later. See threads by @mlevinreports. Proposal has some gaps: 7/ https://twitter.com/mlevinreports/status/1298727832726593536

Critique 1: Whether renter financial crisis is due to COVID or not shouldn’t matter; eviction for any reason right now creates health & public health risk. Tho reqs to show COVID connection are pretty generous. 8/

Critique 2: Just defers rent due, doesn’t pay the rent. So tenants left w debt may not be able to pay later, & landlords don’t get cash now they may need for operations. Proposal incl mortgage forbearance for landlords, but ques if state can do that esp w out-of-state lenders. 9/

Cost to state of covering unpaid rent wd be billions $$, at time when state revs drastically down, so initial prp for that died. Wd be more feasible for $$ to pay rent to come from fed govt, which can run deficit in econ crisis, unlike state, which is req to balance budget. 10/

Renters who’ve lost jobs (& therefore landlords) cd see needs met to pay rent thru federal help *if* Congress & the White House come to agreement on another fed COVID support package – esp if policymakers restore boosted federal unemployment benefits (UI). 11/

Arguably fed UI boost has been most effective #COVID19 housing policy so far, preventing evict & homeless during worst job losses in decades. Thru end July, UI w fed boost had fully covered lost wages for lower-wage workers, so most cd keep up w rent even while out of work. 12/

But fed UI boost expired end of July, and state-only bens in CA are <50% of wages – not enough to cover rent for most households! See thread by my @CalBudgetCenter colleague @alissa_brie on restoring fed UI boost. 13/ https://twitter.com/alissa_brie/status/1299376442548002816

If fed govt acts w COVID support, cd prevent wave of COVID-related evictions in CA. UI helps unemployed workers, other fed supports like hsg vouchers, Emerg Soln Grants, TANF Emerg Fund cd help those struggling to pay rent whether or not financial crisis is due to COVID. 14/

So – will be watching #CALeg this weekend & Monday for details/action on eviction pause. Also watching Congress/WH for details/action on fed COVID response in next wks – esp wrt restoring fed UI boost, also housing-specific supports. 15/

CA eviction pause + fed UI & rent support cd keep most Californians in stable housing for now; failure of either cd mean wave of evictions – with health & public health consequences –now or later. /end