August 26, 2020
For Immediate Release

Contact:
Duc Luu, Public Advocates Inc.

Tenant Advocates Reiterate Need for Strong Protections as Eviction Cliff Approaches

Sacramento, CA – Housing justice organizations comment on urgent need for legislative action to prevent evictions and foreclosures:

As millions of California families hang on by a thread to the shelter that is protecting them from a global pandemic, we remind our elected leaders of their responsibility to keep families home. Now is NOT the time to make evictions and foreclosures easier. In this moment of emergency, we cannot let private profit drive state policy.

As organizations committed to ensuring that every Californian, no matter their race, gender or income, has a safe place to live, we know that any legislative action taken–and action must be taken — cannot exacerbate the pandemic or hobble our state’s vulnerable recovery by throwing families onto the street.

The only statewide policy ensuring that renters are not evicted in the midst of this pandemic expires on September 1. We need the Governor and Legislature to enact a new policy NOW that prohibits all evictions through at least the end of the year, other than those necessary to protect public health and safety. As the COVID-19 public health emergency rages on, every renter who is kicked out of their home puts both their own health, and everyone else’s, in jeopardy.

Evictions also threaten to disenfranchise people–disproportionately Black and Brown people–ahead of the crucial November election in which people are being asked to vote by mail. A forced change of address just as ballots are being sent out and need to be returned will make it impossible for people to vote.

We thank Assemblymember Chiu, the 18 Assembly and Senate co-authors on AB 1436 and the hundreds of endorsing organizations for putting a spotlight on the need Californians have for a stable home during the pandemic and forcing us to take action.

From the start of this pandemic, organized renters throughout California have been demanding action from the state to keep people in their homes both during this public health crisis and for the long term. This growing movement will keep fighting every day for local and statewide solutions that prevent unjust evictions and ensure that renters are not saddled with crippling rental debt.

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Housing Now! California, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, PolicyLink, Public Counsel, and Public Advocates are organizations from throughout California dedicated to racial and economic justice.