News: COVID-19

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The city of Los Angeles wants its waste haulers to reconsider the timing of a fee increase on rental property owners and other customers. The city’s waste haulers have planned a 6.15% rate hike for 2021. Since 2017, rental property owners have been unable to negotiate and choose their waste-hauling services.

Tagged: Los Angeles

California cities and counties have one week to decide whether they’ll conform with the state funding allocation under SB 91, the latest legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on tenants and landlords. SB 91, signed into law last Friday, creates a framework to distribute $2.6 billion in federal funds to landlords who have lost rental income during the COVID-19 pandemic. Landlords with qualifying tenants can receive up to 80% of the rent owed if they agree to forgive the remaining 20%. Local governments that decline to follow state rules established through the legislation, including the 80%/20% payment… Read More

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The California Apartment Association has worked with the city of San Jose to require that tenants declare COVID-related financial hardships before qualifying for the city’s new rent freeze. The new rent freeze ordinance, approved unanimously by the City Council Tuesday, took effect immediately and will run until June 30. The rent freeze will apply only to tenants in rent-controlled units who give their landlords a declaration of COVID-19 related financial distress. This latter requirement, secured by CAA, sets the new ordinance apart from San Jose’s previous rent freeze, which expired at the end of 2020. That ordinance applied to all… Read More

Tagged: Tri-County

The California Apartment Association has demanded that any extension of the state’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium include assistance for landlords who have been required to provide housing while collecting little-to-no rent. While California’s COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020 is slated to expire Jan. 31, political headwinds make an extension a near certainty. The details of that extension, however, are still under negotiation. CAA this week sent a letter to the governor and legislative leadership and has urged its members to call their representatives with concerns and requests. “While CAA does not object to a short extension of AB 3088, we… Read More

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Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget blueprint for 2020-21 includes several proposals that could help Californians recover financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. Newsom’s $227.2 billion spending plan, which he submitted to the Legislature this past Friday, would provide financial help to low-income Californians, launch a program to create jobs, and offer tax credits to spur affordable housing construction.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday pushed for the rapid distribution of $2.6 billion in federal rent relief headed to California from the latest COVID-19 economic stimulus package. Newsom’s office said the funds will help both low-income Californians and small-scale landlords struggling financially from the pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom The governor Wednesday also proposed a $2.4 billion Golden State Stimulus program that would send $600 to low-income Californians. Newsom also urged lawmakers to extend COVID-19 eviction protections set to expire at the end of this month. With federal rent relief, the U.S. Treasury has until Jan. 26 deadline to distribute the… Read More

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Both renters and landlords continue to struggle as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, spurring stay-at-home orders and ravaging California’s economy. Given these hardships, CAA will continue to work with the governor and Legislature to craft temporary policies that keep tenants in their homes but also compensate landlords for the housing they are required to provide to renters affected by the pandemic. An extension of the eviction moratorium, regardless of its duration, must include reimbursements for landlords who have provided housing with zero-to-little compensation under tenant protections tied to the coronavirus. It is paramount that California and its local governments distribute… Read More

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Sacramento landlords and tenants affected by COVID-19 have until the end of this month to sign up for free city-funded mediation services. The program, run through Sacramento Mediation Center, is slated to end Dec. 30. Anyone who opens a case after the free program expires will be charged based on a sliding scale tied to household or business income. Anyone interested in participating is urged to contact the Sacramento Mediation Center at (916) 850-9010 or sacramento@calawyersforthearts.org. Information is also available at sacramentocovidrelief.org.

Tagged: Sacramento Valley

With a pandemic, a recession, riots, and wildfires, it’s safe to chalk up 2020 as a horrible year for just about everyone.   Landlords certainly had it tough. Unpaid rents, rising vacancies, and unreasonable eviction restrictions made operations extremely challenging. While most of the news was awful, a few things went right.   Here are some of the positive developments from 2020.  

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The California Apartment Association is calling on Congress to include COVID-19 rental assistance in its next federal relief package. CAA on Dec. 11 urged its members to echo that request in emails to their representatives in the nation’s capital. “As the debate over a new COVID-19 relief package proceeds, it’s critical that Congress provide short-term financial assistance for renters,” CAA’s message to Congress says. “This assistance would help them come current on the rent they’ve had to defer and help spare them an avalanche of rent debt in the coming months.” Rep. Norma Torres In Washington, D.C., talk of rental… Read More

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