AHF Exhorts Sacramento to Extend California’s Eviction Moratorium in New Ads

August 24, 2020

46

Full-page newspaper ad demanding that the California legislature act immediately to extend a statewide eviction moratorium ran today in the Los Angeles Times; will run Tuesday (8/25) in the Sacramento Bee

Despite the medical, economic and humanitarian devastation the coronavirus pandemic has visited on Californians, the state legislature—where one in four legislators are also landlords—has failed to renew the eviction moratorium or enact any meaningful legislative relief for renters

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In new full-page newspaper ads running this week in the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the parent organization of the Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF), its housing division, is exhorting members of the California legislature to act immediately to extend a statewide eviction moratorium put in place earlier this year in response to economic and humanitarian devastation from California’s COVID-19 pandemic. The moratorium is set to expire in a little over one week—on Tuesday, September 1^st. The legislative session in Sacramento comes to a close August 31^st, so time is of the essence for action.

The ad, written as an Open Letter addressed to All Members of the California Assembly and Senate and headlined “Sacramento-Extend the Eviction Moratorium,” ran in today’s Sunday Los Angeles Times (8/23/20 – p# A18, back page, front section) and will run again Tuesday, August 25 in the Sacramento Bee.

AHF asserts one reason there has been little forward movement on extending the eviction moratorium and drafting any meaningful legislative relief for California’s 17 million renters is the fact that one in four state legislators are also landlords and may be voting—or not voting, in the case of the current standstill—their own personal interests over the good of millions of their constituents. At present, only one California legislator is a renter for their primary residence.

In the Open Letter ad, AHF and its Healthy Housing Foundation plead with the legislature to do the right thing, stating:

“…in the extreme crisis we currently face with Depression-era unemployment; mass evictions right around the corner; homelessness skyrocketing and the toll of human suffering mounting by the hour, our legislature must be able to squeeze out some kind of relief for California’s 17 million renters.”

It also notes:

“Right now, we are at war with a common enemy. The normal political sausage-making and special interest lobbying must give way to the survival needs of our residents.

“Please have a heart. Yes, small landlords are hurting and need aid. However, no one needs the help more than the single mother without childcare; the college student living in their car or the minimum wage worker who just lost their supplemental unemployment benefits.

“California needs profiles in courage right now.”

AHF is also a sponsor and the major Committee funder of the Yes on 21 ballot measure sponsored by Renters and Homeowners United to Keep Families in Their Homes. Committee major funding from AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Prop. 21 has gained increasing urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions already struggling with California’s high housing costs have lost work and income in the nation’s shuttered economy and many may be at risk for eviction come September 1^st.

To learn more go to https://www.rentcontrolnow.org/ and https://www.housinghumanright.org/.