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Critics Slam New Eviction Legislation

Tenant & Legal Aid Groups Demand Executive Action To Stop Expected Wave of Lock Outs

Published on Monday, August 31, 2020 | 3:00 am
 

A local tenant rights group claims Gov. Gavin Newsom is supporting new legislation that could lead to waves of evictions.

Assembly Bill 3088, the Tenant Relief Act of 2020, requires tenants to pay at least 25 percent of their rent from September through January in order to avoid eviction. Renters making above 130 percent of their regional area median income (AMI) must provide additional proof of coronavirus-related economic hardship to avoid eviction. The measure expires Feb. 1 at which point a tenant must pay their rent in full to avoid eviction.

The Legislature must approve the bill by a two-thirds supermajority on Monday.

According to KQED.org, the California Apartment Association is calling AB3088 a “more sensible approach” than San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu’s AB1436, which they said amounted to “free rent” for tenants.

Chiu’s legislation, which is supported by a broad coalition of tenant groups, organized labor, and California mayors, would have prevented eviction for an inability to pay rent in full for up to a year after the end of the COVID-19 state of emergency.

Some tenant groups said the bill supported by Newsom doesn’t go far enough. 

“The governor’s compromise passes the low bar of it being better than nothing,” said Lupe Arreola, executive director of Tenants Together. The Pasadena Tenants Union is part of Tenants Together.

“If he cannot convince the Legislature to pass a decent proposal, he must step up and use his executive power to enact a true eviction moratorium before evictions resume September 1st. California’s 18 million renters are counting on him,” said Arreola.

California courts are set to restart eviction and foreclosure proceedings on Sept. 1.

The tenants’ group claims the new proposal was negotiated with major real estate interests, including the California Apartment Association.

According to a recent study by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, about 365,000 renter households in Los Angeles County are in imminent danger of eviction once an order halting evictions is lifted.

According to the study, which was published in late May, by early May nearly 600,000 people in L.A County had lost their jobs and had no unemployment insurance or other income replacement.

Nearly 450,000 of those people live in 365,000 units of rental housing, and 558,000 children live in those households.

The study also found that people in 120,000 households in L.A. County will become homeless soon after.

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