To help California’s cities fully recover, extend and strengthen renter protections

By City Council Members Katie Valenzuela (Sacramento), Mike Bonin (Los Angeles), Carroll Fife (Oakland), and Supervisor Dean Preston (San Francisco)

An estimated 700,000 Californian households could lose their homes and drown in a sea of debt unless the California Legislature extends and fixes SB 91, a key tool in our state’s recovery. The bill includes protections against eviction and access to debt relief programs for those most affected by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 Pandemic. While the Governor has committed to extending eviction protections, he can’t do it alone. We need the legislature to act now and fix the many gaps in the bill before it expires on June 30th.

As the elected leaders of cities across the state, we keep our fingers on the pulse of our communities’ evolving needs, and while we keep gaining ground in our fight against the pandemic, a true recovery includes much more than mass vaccination. We need the state’s support in our effort to guarantee everyone is safe and healthy.

We have all championed local policies to keep our residents housed and debt free. Our experience shows that stronger protections work in communities up and down California. In Los Angeles, we passed an eviction moratorium, created the largest municipal rent relief program in the nation and are expanding protections against landlord harassment. In Oakland and Alameda County, evictions plummeted after we passed some of the strongest protections in the state. And in San Francisco, we just passed emergency legislation to stop evictions over rent that becomes due after June 30.

Research from UCLA and a recent survey of almost 200 people statewide implementing SB 91 published by BARHII, Housing Now, and PolicyLink indicate that protections and debt relief save lives and increase well-being. The math is simple, residents with stable and affordable housing raise healthier children and can spend more on essentials like food and medical care.

But not all of us have been able to pass some or all the protections that our communities need. In Sacramento, we lost the fight to extend our local protections and we’ve seen a wave of evictions as landlords work around state regulations to evict hard-working families. And in all of our cities, the state made our work harder by bowing to pressure from the landlord and big real estate lobby — limiting the kinds of policies we are allowed to pass. As a result, too many Californians are falling through the cracks, relying only on the state’s important but flawed protections.

Without strong protections, the health of our constituents suffers and racial inequities deepen. The statewide survey of rental relief workers found that 83 percent of them reported their clients had experienced mental health issues associated with housing instability and 64 percent were forced to cut back on essentials to pay rent. The same survey found that 84 percent of respondents reported working with tenants who faced evictions and 59 percent witnessed their clients become homeless. Racial inequities in employment, wealth and housing have resulted in Black and Latinx renters being far more likely to be behind on rent.

The choice before the legislature is clear: act now to strengthen SB 91 and narrow the racial gaps or do nothing and widen disparities.

We all want to build cohesive, dynamic, resilient communities — healthier communities. But we need the state legislature and Governor to stop limiting our ability to pass local protections and eliminate the barriers that are standing in the way of tenant’s housing and financial stability. We must extend the state’s eviction emergency protections until families have had the time to apply for and receive the relief, and get back on their feet.

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to give an equity boost to those who have benefited the least from the economic might of our state. If we play our cards right, and listen to all our constituents, we will come out of this crisis stronger. We urge the legislature to do right by California and fix SB 91.

AUTHORS

Katie Valenzuela was elected to serve on the Sacramento City Council in March 2020, and is the only tenant on the City Council.

Mike Bonin is a progressive advocate for renters, having championed the eviction moratorium in Los Angeles, and represents the 11th District on the Los Angeles City Council.

Carroll Fife has been a community leader for years and was elected to serve on Oakland City Council in November 2020 for District 3.

Dean Preston, a tenant attorney, represents District 5 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.