Gordo Asks Rep. Waters to Lower Population Threshold in Government Stimulus Package

In a letter to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House  Committee on Financial Services, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo asked the Los Angeles Democrat to reconsider the population requirement for emergency rental assistance.

“I wanted to ask that you strongly consider lowering the population threshold for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program,” Gordo wrote in the Feb. 9 letter. “Like so many communities across the country, Pasadena residents have experienced severe hardships during this pandemic as they struggle to pay rent.” 

Gordo copied the letter to City Manager Steve Mermell. City Housing Director William Huang, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena), Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), and Chris Giglio, CapitalEdge Advocacy, LLC, a lobbyist for the city. 

As part of President Joe Biden’s stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan includes $30 billion in rental and utility assistance and extends the national eviction moratorium through September. However, the bill places a 200,000 population threshold on the distribution of the funds. Pasadena’s population is just over 140,000 people, which would make the city ineligible.

“Congress may unintentionally provide barriers to access to this vital assistance,” Gordo said in his letter. “We believe a threshold of 50,000 for distribution of any federal pandemic assistance, not just rental assistance, would be the most effective way to get the federal assistance to those most in need.”

According to Gordo’s letter, most communities with a population of 50,000 and larger are already administering Community Development Block Grant programs and would likely have the ability to administer rental assistance as well. 

Gordo cites the city’s successful rental assistance program using CDBG funds provided by the CARES Act of 2020. 

“In the process, we were able to target the funding more precisely [almost 90% went to extremely low-income and very low-income households] and distribute it more quickly than our larger counterparts.”