By: By Tina Rosales
By: By Tina Rosales
Imagine that one day you come home and find a notice on the door that says: “All tenants are notified that because the rental of the property is pending payment, they have three days to cover all of the what they owe or their contract will be terminated and they will be subject to eviction. ”
That is precisely what will happen to thousands of Californians when the state’s moratorium on evictions ends on 31 September 2021. Every day, tenants receive notifications demanding rent that they cannot pay due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, billions of federal dollars spent to help pay homeowners stay in the bank.
Most renters don’t know what to do or where to go for advice , and unless there are funds available to help them. Also, only a few lucky ones have legal representation.
Before and during the pandemic, I represented tenants in eviction defense trials in the city of Los Angeles, where more than 60% of residents rent.
One day, I walked into court and saw at least . , without a defense attorney. The owners had legal representation. Nationally, only 3% of tenants have a lawyer in these cases, against 81% of landlords.
A bill currently in the State Assembly, AB 1487 would create a fund to equalize the chances of tenants and landlords.
Provides funds for legal representation and provides pre-eviction intervention and mediation services. The combined elements of the bill are especially important at this time when the pandemic is raging and people are still unable to find work and pay rent.
Bill AB 1487, promoted by Housing Now, Inner City Law Center, Legal Aid Association of CA and Western Center on Law and Poverty, will be put to a vote in the Senate before the Labor Day (September 6).
If it obtains bipartisan support, it is approved and signed by the governor, it would give priority to the legal access of 01 million tenants.
The stakes are high for them without a lawyer to represent them, they lost their case and have to move.
African-American women with children and Latino tenants they are the ones most at risk of being evicted. And the majority of California homeowners are corporations that have the resources they need to win in court. Their priority is to make shareholders happy, and not to keep communities safe and stable.
The consequences for tenants, in addition to the loss of their home, are the exacerbation of your medical problems, including COVID – 19, stress, anxiety, and depression. The eviction lawsuit on record makes it difficult for them to get a rent in the future. It can prevent a child from going to school by changing districts or even make a parent fear that their child will be taken away for not having a place to live.
With so much at stake, it is reasonable to assume that tenants have the right to be represented in court, but in California they still do not.
This year, I made the difficult decision to quit practicing law to become an activist, to make substantive changes – like those of Bill AB 1487 – in the unfair evictions that I myself saw every day as a lawyer. I want to make sure that people who come across an eviction notice on their door know that there is legal help they can turn to.
Tina Rosales is a housing advocate for the Western Center on Law & Poverty. It focuses on issues related to land use, low- and no-income housing production, landlord-tenant law, homelessness, fair housing, and more. Previously, Tina worked for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, where she was involved in landlord-tenant litigation and homeless matters. 2021