While the end of a state eviction moratorium has created uncertainty for indebted tenants in Marin, county officials say they are working to get relief money to people who need it.
The moratorium, which expired Thursday, banned landlords from evicting people for unpaid rent because of COVID-related hardships. Now tenants in arrears can only be protected from evictions if they have applied for assistance.
“We’re seeing a lot of anxiety from tenants in our community,” Leelee Thomas, a county planning official overseeing COVID-19 aid distribution. “It’s important for people to know there are some ongoing protections.”
These protections, contained in Assembly Bill 832, extend until March 31. Chief among them is the requirement that landlords apply for government rental assistance to cover unpaid rent before suing to evict.
The law also requires that eviction proceedings be put on hold if a tenant owing rent has filed for government relief payments.
“We know what the law says on paper,” said Lucie Hollingsworth, a senior attorney with Legal Aid of Marin, “but how this is going to work in reality nobody knows.”
Hollingsworth said that once a tenant gets approved for aid, an eviction case will be dismissed.
“We’re telling every tenant, even if they think they won’t qualify, to apply just to postpone an eviction,” she said.
AB 832 specified that tenants had to pay 25% of unpaid rent incurred from Sept. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, to receive protection from eviction. Hollingsworth said judges might show leniency in interpreting this requirement when cases come before them.
Thomas said the county has distributed about $10 million of the $33 million in federal and state funds allocated to it for rental relief. The county has provided assistance to about 750 of the 2,100 rental households that have applied for help paying their back rent or money owed for utilities. Thomas said another $5.1 million in relief payments are being processed.
The government rental relief funds can be used to pay utility debts. Some 171,000 Marin residents are behind a collective $8.5 million in payments to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The Marin Municipal Water District is owed more than $2.9 million in late payments.
Thomas said it is important for renters who are in debt to know that distribution of rental assistance funds has not ended along with the eviction moratorium.
“We are getting out about $250,000 to $300,000 a week right now,” she said.
The county will prioritize any applications filed by people whose landlords are attempting to evict them.
“Those, even if they apply now, are going to move to the head of the line,” Thomas said. People who earn only 30% of the area median income will be next in the queue.
Financial assistance is also available for people who went into debt to pay their rent. In such cases, the money can be applied to future rent.
“Households just need to show they had this impact from COVID,” Thomas said. “The goal is to make the documentation threshold fairly low. The assumption is if someone is very low income then it is likely they were impacted by COVID.”
The county is expanding efforts to get the relief money to those who need it. On Tuesday, county supervisors authorized paying Canal Alliance more than $500,000 to assist in the effort. The nonprofit will provide five employees for 12 months to help process rental assistance applications. The money comes out of the state and federal funds provided for rental assistance.
The county intends to enter into contracts with other nonprofits to provide similar assistance in reaching Marin residents in other parts of the county.
Angela Nicholson, assistant Marin County administrator, said that based on the number of low-income residences, the county has concluded there are many more renters who are eligible for the program than have applied.
“Quite honestly with the ostensibly available state money for reimbursement of past due rents there is not much financial incentive to pursue an eviction,” said Joby Tapia, secretary of the Marin Rental Property Association. “I’d say that the effort is better spent right now trying to secure the reimbursement funds.”
Tapia said in addition to the tenant protections contained in AB 832, any landlord seeking an eviction would face a tremendously backlogged Marin County Superior Court.
“Good luck getting a hearing date sometime before 2022,” he said. “Residential evictions are really a back-burner item for the courts right now.”
But the court’s chief executive, James Kim, said, “We are not aware of any backlog.”
“We are processing all new unlawful detainer complaints as they arrive,” he said, referring to eviction actions.
AB 832 prohibits local jurisdictions from enacting new eviction moratoriums through March 31.
Meredith Parnell, a leader of the Marin Organizing Committee civic organization, said it “recognizes that the county’s hands are tied by AB 832.”
“But we urge the county to consider strengthening our current just cause ordinance and other measures, including more funding for legal services, to better protect our renters,” Parnell said.
A year ago, supervisors allocated $310,000 to Legal Aid of Marin to provide services to low-income renters.
“Right now our housing attorneys and legal assistants are completely underwater,” Hollingsworth said. The nonprofit has just two lawyers and three legal assistants available to work on eviction cases.
Hollingsworth said her biggest worry is that renters owing money will “self-evict.”
“Court is scary,” she said. “How many tenants are just going to move rather than face court and assert their rights?”
Hollingsworth said this is a particular risk for undocumented renters who owe back rent.
“Our main focus this past week has been educating tenants about their rights,” she said. “The undocumented have just as much a right to safe and inhabitable living conditions as anyone else.”