Unpaid rent: State lawmakers looking for deal to protect renters from evictions

SAN FRANCISCO - The state's eviction freeze protections are set to expire at the end of the month and some are worried that if lawmakers don't hammer out a deal, thousands of people will be kicked out of their homes.  

Even though California's economy officially reopened June 15, many around the Bay Area and around the state are still reeling from economic impacts of COVID-19. For many that means difficulty coming up with rent.

The state has a deal in place to prevent evictions for those who can't pay. That deal expires June 30th.

Landlords are also learning they will be made whole if their tenants can't pay. But, so far a deal hasn't been worked out for what happens after July 1st.

Assemblyman David Chiu says he is pushing for an agreement to be reached soon. 

"From my perspective, it would be potentially catastrophic if we were not to extend that," said Assemblyman Chiu. "We still have countless Californians who are in severe rental debt and if evictions were to start on July 1st we could see a massive wave of evictions."

The San Francisco lawmaker is chair of the Assembly Housing Committee and says right now billions of dollars are still available to make sure that landlords get paid and renters can remain where they are. 

"Only a small fraction of Californians who can apply for this money have applied for it," said Assemblyman Chiu. "Which means we literally have billions of dollars sitting in government coffers waiting for struggling tenants and landlords to fill out the paperwork and apply."

State lawmakers are hammering out a deal on how long the protections should remain in place. At the same time, cities also have their own eviction protections.

San Francisco's Land Use and Transportation Committee held a hearing Monday to discuss the city's plan to make sure protections are in place after July 1st. District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston said the state needs to act quickly. 

"In the meantime, I think we are doing the most we can do locally on eviction protections," said Supervisor Preston. "But, that should not obscure the fact that in some ways this is a mess of the state's making and it has left us all scrambling in cities and counties across the state."

But, many property owners are expressing concerns about blanket protections for renters. Landlords say they value their tenants, but in some cases the eviction protections are being abused. 

"So, that's it, just hoping that there could be some differentiation, between people that really need the protection due to financial hurt, and tenants such as squatters and nuisance tenants," said one person who called in for public comment.

A deal could be hammered out any day, and could be signed by the governor as early as the end of this week.