Recommendation to request City Manager establish a policy for the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Relief Program to determine eligibility for expedient processing and payment to residents who have been served with a notice of termination of tenancy, or eviction, including Notice to Vacate, Notice to Pay or Quit, or any other eviction notice. Further, request that City staff reach out to landlords who have issued eviction notices to advise them on the ability to apply for expedited processing and payment of back rent through this program.
Thank you. We're going to do item 38, please. Item 38 Communication from Council Member Younger Councilwoman Zendejas. Councilwoman Sara. Vice Mayor Richardson. Recommendation to establish a policy for the COVID 19 Emergency Rental Relief Program to determine eligibility for expedient processing and payment to residents. And request that city staff reach out to landlords who have issued eviction notices to advise them on the ability to apply for expedited processing. Of a motion and a second count. Summary Oranga. Thank you, Mary. I want to thank my colleagues up close. A woman said there has sorrow and Vice Mayor Rick Richardson for joining me on this on this topic. COVID 19 has had a major negative impact on working families and led to the most significant economic downturn that has ever been seen in decades erode. State and local agencies have put together an economic recovery package that includes rent relief. However, in many cases, these payments are not coming soon enough. Because current evictions, the foreclosure protections expire on June 30th. Many of those who were hit hardest by the pandemic may be facing eviction or even homelessness in the coming months. That is why it is paramount importance that we identify and prioritize residents who are in immediate danger of eviction so that they can receive the support they need to stay in their homes. And I want to also note that many of the families that are affected by this, they have until June 30th. That's been the state deadline. We need to act quickly. And unfortunately, we're not meeting in the next couple of weeks. It is imperative that this this item pass. So I would appreciate the support of my colleagues. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Urine. I'll offer my second here and simply say, I think we know that conditions are going to change if and when the eviction moratorium deadline is lifted. And I think this is smart. It allows staff the flexibility if there is an urgent situation and someone's going to they're in the pipeline and and something is about to happen. I think staff needs to be able to have the flexibility to do so. And I think the point here is simply just to keep people in their homes. And that's why we set up the program and that's what it is that we want we want accomplished. So I'm happy to support this here. I know that a portion of the funds we talked about and maybe, maybe this has already happened, but but this is city manager. Did we do the back rent? We set up a structure for people to apply for maximum back rent. Where are we with that? Is that already? Is that all that funding already gone out or is that still eligible under the funding that we have? Um. I believe what background is eligible. We are just getting underway with issuing payments. So we've got, if I remember the stats right, about 36 million or so of people have applications and then they go through a vetting process and they go through all the different federal requirements and state requirements. So we have been issuing checks just as of last week. I think about two or so million dollars went out the door. And I believe that back rent is a part of that within the within the parameters. Okay. I think this most closely aligns with the background portion of this, but I'm happy to support it. Thank you. So what we're looking here to do, just so I can clarify, is we're not changing any of the criteria. Those are all set in state and federal law. And Christopher is here. He can help me out if I say something incorrect. But we are expediting those who are in urgent need of being potentially evicted, that we will be processing their payments first so that we can kind of move them to the front of the line and make sure that they're eligible for those that meet the criteria. So, Christopher, anything like Mr. Toms? Absolutely correct. We don't have the ability of one or two to change any of the eligibility criteria, but we do have discretion and we want to help people. So if someone has an active eviction notice, they need to let us or the vendor know we'll take them out of order. We'll process that as expeditiously as we can. And the most important thing, though, is getting people to apply at all. We've done an amazing job to get people into this program, but there are still people that have not applied. We are in contact with your staffs all the time. We need your help to meet, to find those final people that have not yet applied and get them into this program. Thank you. Councilman's in the house. Thank you. Thank you very much to city staff. And thank you so much, Mr. Koontz. I know that you've been doing an incredible job on this, and I thank you and my residents. Thank you. This pandemic brought so much pain to so many families. It put many out of work and left people with no steady source of income to purchase food, pay bills, or even pay rent. As we come out of this pandemic, it is important to do our best to connect folks with the emergency resources available as the emergency COVID relief rental relief program that is meant to help families stay in their home. I want to thank Council member Wodonga Vice Mayor Van Richardson and Councilwoman Sorrell for supporting this item that calls for the rental relief application process to prioritize those who are on the verge of facing eviction. I also hope to continue seeking outreach and being contact seeking outreach that is being conducted citywide to ensure that folks receive access to information about this opportunity and are available to apply as soon as possible. As as you know, city staff, me and my staff are ready and and willing to reach out, do all the outreach we can, and also reach out to our and to our community based organizations who are out there every day with our trying to help our community and our residents with this particular aspect of rent relief. So thank you again very much. Thank you, Councilman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. And I also want to say thank you to council and your ranga for bringing this item forward and to Vice Mayor Rex Richardson and Councilwoman Zendejas and Councilman Ciro for signing on to this very important item. This is this is this is very, very critical, especially with the state and the county protections that are set to expire on June 30th. It's vital that we take this action to protect both the tenants and landlords who have experienced financial loss due to COVID 19. And it's also important that we expedite this relief where it is needed. And I know I can tell you that my residents thank you for this item. So I'm happy to support this today. Thank you, Councilwoman Saru. Yes. I want to thank Councilmember Yanga for bringing this item forward and my colleagues, Vice Mayor Richardson and Councilwoman Sun. As for signing on. And, you know, I think my colleagues have shared so urgent that we do something as a city to protect our renters. And I want to thank development services for their amazing hard work and ensuring that we're getting the word out and assistance through the emergency rental assistance program. I just have a few questions. And with this is what currently is the turnaround time for processing and payment to residents? And the second question is what happens to residents while they're waiting for processing and payment? You know, if they applied prior to that June 30th, when the eviction moratorium ends, I won't know what happened to them while they're waiting for their payments to be processed. Sure. Thank you for the question, Councilmember. And similar to the discussion earlier tonight, you know, we accept applications in any level of completeness. So while it should only take about ten days to process an application, it has been taking much longer than that, a couple of months to process these applications because we'll be missing information from the tenant. They have to prove not just that they're in financial need, but that COVID was a triggering event. So they don't need to have covered themselves, but they worked in the service industry and lost their job as a result. Or there was some complicating factor tied back to the pandemic, and they have to establish their income and some different things for us. So we gather all of that information and then we need some information from the landlord and we reach out separately to make sure we accommodate that. So we need their W-9 tax information. We need to verify the amount of the lease. We contact the utilities to see if there's back utility payments. We put all of that together. We go through an audit process and then we issue a check. The tech goes to the landlord for the background. But the good news is, even though that can take some time to process, you know, step two after we receive an application is to contact the landlord. We're in the process of paying this outstanding amount, you know, and we want you to accept payment. So in the event that someone is behind you by facing an eviction, we'd be working with the landlord to let them know that that payment is forthcoming so that they would stop any proceedings. And 99.9% of the landlords are very accommodating. And we have a different procedure for if the landlord is not, you know, doesn't want to accept the payment or is not accommodating. And then as a last, last, last resort, we have a separate program that we cooperate with the county, which is a right to counsel program, which does provide legal counsel to the tenant to dispute the eviction if that should become necessary. And the vast, vast majority of cases, we're working cooperatively with the landlord, with the tenant, and that's not necessary. But that is available as a kind of backstop. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Brenda. Thank you. And I thank you, Mr. Koontz, for that explanation. I was going to ask a question about our our ability to work with landlords in implementing this program. And you were right on. Thank you very much. Any public comment on this item? There's no public comment on this item. Thank you. I think I've come from an and there's. Thank you, Mary. May I just have one quick question for our staff. Are we trying to one of the things that I think is deterring some of my residents from applying for this is may be the rigorous documentation that that needs to be filled. Is there a way that it can be simplified or can we look into possibly simplifying that process? Sure. Council Member So I really would encourage people to apply and provide what they can and then talk to us about what they can't provide. So I wish it was even simpler. We have to please in this program, both federal regulators and state regulators, both of whom have different ideas about how to make it simple. So it's not perfectly simple, but when a tenant is not able to provide a document. So, for example, oftentimes people maybe they don't file taxes or they just don't have a copy of a prior year tax return. There is a way to do a sworn declaration as to their income level. So we work with them. We they could submit the application online. They could call the hotline. We've been doing outreach events in person in your district and around. And in that case, we actually have staff, you know, help the individual fill out the application right there live. So we really are able to work through people's situations, including, you know, missing a document or not having something that we're requesting. But we do need them to take that first step of, you know, engaging with us and starting the application process. Thank you very much. Mr.. That makes me feel much better. Thank you. And thank you again for also working with our landlords who often get forgotten in this situation. And so thank you very much. Thank you. And that concludes the the agenda items. We will go ahead and do a roll call vote, please. District one. I'm District two. I'm District three. I District four i. District five I. District six I. District seven i. District eight District nine high rise. Thank you. We are going to move on to item 26, please.