Duration of Pasadena’s Eviction Moratorium Unclear

Moratoriums preventing renters affected by the COVID-19 pandemic from being evicted for lack of payment at the state and county levels are set to expire June 30, but it remains uncertain how long a similar policy enacted in Pasadena will remain in effect, officials said.

Unlike moratoriums enacted by California and Los Angeles County officials, which have a built-in expiration date of June 30 unless extended, Pasadena’s eviction moratorium will remain in effect so long as the city remains under a local state of emergency, according to Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang.

“There’s no date yet for when that emergency order gets lifted,” Huang said. “When the emergency order is lifted, then the affected households would have six months in order to pay back their back rent.”

Huang also pointed out that the city is offering a rental assistance program to households, which have already helped more than 275 households with roughly $1 million in deferral COVID-19 relief funds.

“There certainly is a lot of concern that there will be potential households that will not be able to pay their back rent when it comes due,” he said. “That’s why we’re encouraging as many households as possible to take advantage of these emergency rental assistance programs that are out there.”

The state also offers a program to help renters pay overdue rent, and Huang said he encouraged local residents in need of some help to apply.

Details of the state offerings can be found online at housing.ca.gov/covid_rr.

Landlords, too, are feeling anxiety about what’s to come, according to local realtor and property owner Adam Bray-Ali.

“Last year, as the pandemic began, most landlords saw it as an obviously big challenge and were not sure how to proceed. And as March turned into April into May into June, there was a recognition that the local municipalities and the state, and then the federal government, essentially rewrote all of our contracts and prevented landlords from both collecting rents and evicting tenants for nonpayments,” Bray-Ali said.

“As that began, many landlords, including me, offered our non-paying tenants that if they were to move, we would forgive unpaid rent, late fees, et cetera. And some of my tenants did take us up on that offer,” he said. “We had several tenants that just up and left, and I wished them good luck with life, gave them their deposit back and just moved forward.”

Bray-Ali said he had a different experience, however, with some other tenants.

“There were other tenants that were much more strategic in their planning about this. One tenant, in particular, not only didn’t accept that, but then sort of dragged things out with zero payments until the end of last year, and has now left owing tens of thousands of dollars,” he said. “We can’t do anything right now, but once the moratorium ends… we have the ability to make a small claims lawsuit for unpaid rents against that person.”

But for the most part, tenants appear to want to keep their accounts in good standing, he said. And the numerous local, state and federal assistance programs have helped.

“Those tenants that were able to, began to catch up on their rent and we saw tenants coming in paying all of their rent. That’s great,” Bray-Ali said. “But we still have several of our tenants that are very much riding this out, paying zero.”

“There are those that are going to try to take advantage of any system they can,” he said. “But what the numbers seem to bear out is that — and this is my philosophy of life — people want to maintain their obligations. They want to try to figure out a way to stay.” 

Pasadena realtor Todd Hays said he has not experienced a significant downturn in rent payments.

“I have, personally, not had any problems with tenants not paying rent and I’m thankful that all my tenants have been paying rent,” he said. “And I’ve heard the same thing from my colleagues, who either manage rentals or own rentals themselves, that 90% to 100% of their rent has come in this entire time.”

On the renters’ side of the equation, tenant advocate Allison Henry of the San Gabriel Valley Tenants Alliance said not all landlords are working with their tenants as much as others.

“I’ve heard the absolute worst of landlords not participating in rental assistance programs. We had at least two tenants here in Pasadena who wanted to apply for the rental assistance program and their landlords wouldn’t let them because their landlords just wanted them out. This was back last year when the city was doing its rental assistance program, so that was really shocking,” she said.

“There’s still a high percentage of landlords, for a variety of reasons, that aren’t participating in the rental assistance program,” Henry said.

Many tenants have gone to great lengths to try to keep up with their rents, she said.

“The tenants have borrowed money. They’ve borrowed money from friends. They’ve done payday loans,” according to Henry. “People are just scrambling.”

Even though tenants aren’t currently being evicted for nonpayment, they are still building significant debt, she added.

“These are debts that are accruing,” Henry said. “You can’t be evicted for it. But your landlord can take you to a civil court, small claims court, and no one wants that.”

More information on Pasadena’s rent moratorium ordinance can be found online at cityofpasadena.net/wp-content/uploads/COVID_EvictionFAQ_Sept-2020_HRC.pdf.