This week, on February 1, back rent that went unpaid during COVID comes due. Many tenants who owed back rent have applied and been approved for Emergency Rental Assistance. Of those approved for this assistance. many have not yet received their checks.
Last week, the City Council directed the City Attorney to draft an ordinance providing a 120-day grace period for those who have been approved for rental assistance but have not yet received the money to pay their back rent.
The Council acted on a motion co-presented by Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, seconded by Councilmember Nithya Raman and Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.
“In my view it would be unacceptable for people who have been approved for that assistance to be evicted from their homes simply because our bureaucracy has ground too slowly to get them their checks in time,” said Council President Krekorian. “My intention was not to create an open-ended suspension of the right to evict, but to focus on people who have been approved and are simply waiting for that bureaucratic process to wind its way through and be completed.”