News: COVID-19

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The California Apartment Association has asked the U.S. Small Business Administration to ensure that rental housing owners are included in its COVID-19 relief efforts. The Small Business Administration manages the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, part of the CARES Act stimulus program. The PPP is providing forgivable loans of up to 2.5 times average monthly payroll costs to small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These includes sole proprietors and the self-employed. But under pre-existing rules governing the SBA, the federal government considers many landlords to be “passive businesses,” which generally makes them ineligible for SBA loans. In a letter… Read More

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Debra Carlton In CAA’s second podcast, Debra Carlton, CAA’s executive vice president for state public affairs, discusses legislative efforts to bring financial relief to both tenants and landlords during the COVID-19 crisis. Listen here

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Despite immense opposition from CAA, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to prolong its COVID-19 related rent freeze by more than a year, and likely much longer. Under the council’s decision, the rent freeze, which applies to locally rent controlled housing, will remain in place for one year following the expiration of the local COVID-19 emergency. The emergency, though, lacks a definite end date. The council also updated its eviction moratorium to give tenants a private right of action against a landlord, a move expected to create a cottage industry of lawsuits against property owners. The private right… Read More

Tagged: Los Angeles

CAA has sponsored legislation designed to lower the property taxes of landlords who’ve suffered financial damages due to COVID-19. SB 1431 by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, would clear the way for landlords to request property tax reassessments based on financial losses attributable to the virus. Specifically, these damages would need to come from rent freezes, eviction moratoria, and other tenant protections imposed by governments in response to the outbreak. Sen. Steven Glazer SB 1431 is one of two CAA-sponsored bills that went into print in recent days to provide landlords with relief during the pandemic. The other bill, SB 1410… Read More

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In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for rent strikes by extreme tenant activists, the California Apartment Association is hearing from members that some residents have not paid their May rent. The association has created an informal poll to gauge the scope of the problem. The survey includes four questions and takes less than one minute to complete. The answers will remain anonymous. Although unscientific, the poll results will provide CAA with valuable information to share with the rental housing industry, elected officials and the news media. The data also will help CAA advocate for government relief such as… Read More

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The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday voted to help tenants cover unpaid rent accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will provide an additional $3 million in community relief funding to tenants unable to pay rent during the outbreak. Anaheim will provide a total of $5 million in housing assistance to its residents. The funding will kick in after the city’s eviction moratorium ends May 31, however the California Apartment Association is working with city staff to provide more immediate relief. The council also considered extending the moratorium until June 31, but the proposal failed. The moratorium prohibits landlords from… Read More

Tagged: Long Beach

Two Bay Area jurisdictions this week adopted regulations to freeze rent increases in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  CAA worked closely with both jurisdictions – the city of San Jose and San Mateo County — to make sure the legislation protects for renters with COVID-19 financial challenges while sparing landlords from overly burdensome financial or administrative requirements. San Mateo County On Tuesday, April 28, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a temporary rent increase moratorium. The ordinance took effect immediately and covers all of San Mateo County, unincorporated areas and within cities. The ordinance bans rent increases… Read More

Tagged: Tri-County

CAA today condemned the threatened rent strikes that tenant advocacy groups are attempting to organize in California.  Extreme tenant-rights groups have urged all tenants to withhold May’s rent — even if unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tom Bannon, chief executive officer for the California Apartment Association, said rent strike organizers are “irresponsible, unethical and unlawful.” Bannon also condemned tenants who see the pandemic as an excuse to cheat their landlord.   The strikes are intended to coerce rental property owners and elected officials into canceling rent and erasing any obligation to pay accumulated back rent. Such a policy is untenable and would create an exodus from the rental… Read More

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CAA-sponsored legislation to help both landlords and renters endure the financial difficulties brought on by COVID-19 is now in print. Under SB 1410, the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program, the state of California would make direct rental payments to help tenants who cannot afford to pay their rent. SB 1410 would cover at least 80% of unpaid rent attributable to the pandemic. Eligible renters for the temporary COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program would include those who can demonstrate, as determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development, an inability to pay rent due to COVID-19 or a government response… Read More

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CAA members have flooded the inboxes of state lawmakers with requests that they reject a bill that would allow the California courts to cut rents by 25%.  More than 55,000 messages have gone to members of the Senate and Assembly, part of a grassroots public affairs campaign by the California Apartment Association. The messages urged no votes on AB 828 by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco. They came from rental housing providers, vendors that serve the industry, and attorneys who practice landlord-tenant law.  “While I understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a great deal of uncertainty for many Californians,… Read More

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