Capitol Mum On Eviction Moratorium Extension As Renters Seek More Time Sunday, May 2, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
Helen Duffy, back right, a West Oakland landlord holds up a sign decrying SB 91, a rent relief plan signed into law earlier that day by Gov. Gavin Newsom, during a vigil at the Elihu M. Harris, State of California office building in Oakland.
Anne Wernikoff / CalMatters
With two months to go before a statewide eviction moratorium expired in January, lawmakers, lobbyists and the governor’s staff were already deep into negotiations on an extension. They reached it just days before the deadline, providing six more months of a ban on eviction.
Photo by David Rodriguez, The Salinas Californian click to flip through (2) Graphic by CalMatters When Blanca Esthela Trejo, 46, lies down to sleep, it feels like shards of glass stab her back and cut into her lungs a lingering effect of COVID-19. I d like to be crouched down, hunched over all the time, because the pain is too much, she said. But Trejo is foregoing medical treatment because she has put paying the rent on her Salinas apartment above all else to keep a roof over her three children s heads. A state law passed in January extended eviction protections for tenants through June 30, as long as tenants show they lost their income due to COVID-19 and pay a quarter of what they owe.
Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe
With two months to go before a statewide eviction moratorium expired in January, lawmakers, lobbyists and the governor’s staff were already deep into negotiations on an extension. They reached it j
Now, with two months left before that
extension itself expires on June 30, there is no proposed legislation to give renters more time before the moratorium ends, and lawmakers expressed uncertainty that there will be.
Note:
The City of L.A. s emergency rent relief program is due to expire April 30.
“It remains to be seen if there’s appetite in Sacramento to extend the protections past June 30,” said David Chiu, the San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman who wrote the original eviction moratorium legislation. “But I don’t think any of my colleagues have an interest in seeing a wave of mass evictions.”
In summary
Complex rules and landlord resistance are limiting the success of an unprecedented effort to help tenants. Advocacy groups are concerned what will happen after a statewide eviction moratorium ends June 30.
When Blanca Esthela Trejo, 46, lies down to sleep, what feels like shards of glass stab her back and cut into her lungs a lingering effect of COVID-19.
“I’d like to be crouched down, hunched over all the time, because the pain is too much,” she said.
But Trejo is foregoing medical treatment because she has put paying the rent on her Salinas apartment above all else to keep a roof over her three children’s heads.