(24 Jun 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4332179
Governor Gavin Newsom says California will pay off all the past-due rent that accumulated in the nation's most populated state because of the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, a promise to make landlords whole while giving renters a clean slate.
Left unsettled is whether California will continue to ban evictions for unpaid rent beyond June, a pandemic-related order that was meant to be temporary but is proving difficult to undo.
On Thursday, Federal eviction protections were extended to July 31. But California had passed its own protections that applied to more people.
Newsom and legislative leaders are meeting privately to decide what to do, part of the negotiations over the state's roughly $260 billion operating budget.
An extension of the eviction ban seems likely to give California more time to spend all the money to cover unpaid rent.
But landlords and tenants' rights groups are arguing over how long that extension should last.
Elena Cruz was laid off from her florist job last year due to the pandemic.
She's been working odd jobs since, including being a part-time nanny, but it's not enough to cover the $2500 monthly rent on her modest duplex in San Francisco's Mission District.
Her adult son who helps pay the rent was also laid off from his retail job.
The family is now about eight months behind in rent and owes $20,000.
That debt will likely be covered by the government but Cruz is worried she could still be evicted if the protections expire.
Meanwhile, in the wine country area of Sonoma County, property manager Keith Becker says 14 tenants are more than $100,000 behind in rent payments.
It's put financial pressure on the owners, who Becker says have "resigned themselves to it."
But they have grown weary of the seemingly endless protections, which he noted were aimed at addressing a public health emergency and not meant to be permanent.
California has $5.2 billion to pay off people's rent, money from multiple aid packages approved by Congress.
That appears to be more than enough to cover all of the unpaid rent in the state, according to Jason Elliott, senior counselor to Newsom on housing and homelessness.
But the state has been slow to distribute that money, and it's unlikely it can spend it all by June 30.
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