A proclamation urging rent and mortgage moratoriums for those unable to pay during the COVID-19 emergency.
Thank you, Councilmember. All right. I don't see any other. Anybody else. So that concludes our announcements. That concludes our announcements. There are no presentations, there are no communications. But we do have one proclamation this evening and I council member can each. We did it just a second and then go over to you for that. Go ahead. Thank you. Council President Clark. Today we have Proclamation 20 Dash 20350 urging rent and mortgage moratoriums for those unable to pay during the COVID 19 emergency. I'm going to read this a little differently than usual. It's a little longer than our typical proclamation. And I want to thank Councilman Chris Hines and Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca for helping to shape the language. I'm going to summarize some sections, read a few. And Councilman Hines will be reading the closing of it. So thank you for your forbearance and we'll try to make it a little faster by not reading every word. So the first two paragraphs of this proclamation outline the history of the coronavirus in Denver and the health orders that resulted in a massive range of unemployment among the residents of our city. The third paragraph outlines the massive unemployment from those, especially in industries like food, retail, non-essential manufacturing, fitness, hairstylists and all those others, to the tune of more than 127,000 claims for unemployment. But recently employed workers and some immigrants are not eligible for unemployment, and even eligible recipients experienced delays in their benefits and only partial replacement of earnings. Whereas the federal stimulus package will provide most adult Americans with a one time check for 1200 dollars. But many immigrant workers will not receive these benefits in spite of paying their taxes. Low income non-tax filers face significant barriers to getting these benefits, and even filers who are eligible may not receive their checks for weeks or months if they do not use direct deposit. And many households monthly rent and necessity expenses exceed the amount of this one time payment. Now the CDC recommends extreme social distancing. And we have been warned today by our mayor that that distancing will not and suddenly we will come out of it slowly, which means that many of our residents will remain out of work, even as some orders change in the coming months. Whereas many Denver ites were already struggling to keep up with their rent payments prior to this crisis, with an average rent of 1470 $5 and 46% of renters paying more than 30% of their income to housing costs, making them cost burdened or severely cost burdened. And home price appreciation had already outpaced wage growth, causing 24% of homeowners in Denver to be cost burdened or severely cost burdened. Now, our courts in Denver are closed through May 31st, and our mayor has directed the Denver Sheriff's Department to not assist in eviction orders during these health orders. But when these courts reopen, eviction filings have continued to be accepted and there will be a massive accumulation of debt and a risk of housing loss when courts reopen. Now, our governor has issued an executive order that makes requests to help residents of our state and ask lenders to provide leniency and asks his departments to work with them. But that executive order does not issue any requirements to do so. Whereas renters in Denver have shared that some laudable landlords have worked with them as tenants to reduce rents or accept delayed payments. But others have continued to post rent demands on doors, file evictions and have refused requests to accommodate their renters. And while both Denver and the state fund rental assistance programs, Denver already saw a 245% increase in applications for temporary rental and utility assistance in March 2020 alone. And there will not be sufficient city or state funding to pay all rent shortfalls in the city or state. Whereas the closure of businesses to prevent the spread of COVID 19 has also caused significant financial hardship to small business renters, also impacting their ability to pay rent. And. Whereas, the Governor's Emergency Declaration on March 11, 2020, Gov. Polis opened the opportunity to use certain emergency powers under the Colorado Disaster Emergency Act. Now our Federal Reserve Bank has given a massive infusion of $1.5 trillion in loans to banks to help them make due if they are missing payments from those who have mortgages for their properties. And this, in turn, provides the ability of banks to provide relief to those who owe debt on homes or on multifamily properties that are rented to tenants directly impacting those landlords ability to then provide rent relief for rent to tenants. And by halting mortgage payments. During this time, the urgent need for landlords to collect rent will be paused. Whereas to date there is no national rent or mortgage relief program other than restrictions in the CARES Act for properties with federally backed mortgages, which protect only about one third of rental apartments. And there is no government program of any kind for mortgages on multifamily dwellings. And I'll now turn it over to Councilman Hines to complete the proclamation. It's almost a full page document is. All right. Welcome. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to I want to thank Councilmember Canete and Councilmember CdeBaca and the entire delegation for for letting us bring this forward. The proclamation is about everyday working folks. We've all heard about trickle down. We've all heard about the top will get the money and pass it down to the rest of us. In the COVID pandemic, as Councilmember Kinney just mentioned, we're already giving a one and a half trillion dollar bailout to banks. But lots of people are losing their jobs and can't pay rent. And lots of mom and pop landlords are unable to pay their mortgage. This proclamation is about them. Big banks got a bailout in 2008 and another one just a couple of weeks ago, and so did large real estate conglomerates. Yet I've heard from District ten renters that not all they're not all this way, but I've heard from District ten renters saying that their property managers are encouraging people to use their credit cards for rent. And I've heard from mom and pop property owners that the big banks are being inflexible, too. This proclamation is about giving our state and federal elected officials support to get this done statewide or nationally so that our money helps all of us and not just the 1%. And just, you know, Denver and Colorado are not alone. California and New York have mortgage deferrals in place through action at the state level. Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle and our neighbor Aurora have already passed similar resolutions. Both the state and federal officials could use federal rental assistance aid to create rental vouchers, to pay rents directly to landlords, landlords for people who cannot pay. And this isn't about telling our state and federal electeds how to do their jobs. I wouldn't ask them. I wouldn't tell them how to do their jobs, as I wouldn't imagine that they would tell me how to do mine. But it's about giving them the support so that they can fight for all of us who are working and for all of us, through no fault of our own, recently became all of us who are working and all of us who have recently lost our jobs as a result of COVID. So thank you, Mr. President. All right. Thank you, Councilmember. We're a little bit out of order because we're reading the proclamation. But, Councilman Keyser, are we all read our covered on the reading. Can we. Not we? I'm sorry, Councilwoman Hines is going to be 50 it resolved before we went to the comments. Kind of an apology under oath. Do you have it in front of you or would you like me to do that for you. Councilmember? I have it so I can read it. Apologies. Just the down there for. Yes. Okay. You can hear me still. Great. Okay. So now therefore being proclaimed by the city and county of Denver, Section one, that the Council of the City and County of Denver calls upon Governor Jared Polis to use the full legal extent of his emergency powers to impose an immediate moratorium on residential and small business commercial rent payments for those unable to pay due to COVID 19 and public health orders such that no Coloradan or small business who is unable to pay through no fault of their own should be required to pay rent during this health emergency. Nor should they accumulate debt or interest for unpaid rent and to support efforts to achieve similar action from other state and federal elected officials as described in Sections two and Section two that the Council and the of the city and county of Denver calls on the administration of President Donald Trump, members of the congressional delegation representing Denver and congressional leaders, specifically Representative Diana DeGette, Senator Cory Gardner, Senator Michael Bennet, Senator Nancy Pelosi, or excuse me, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services Committee Chair MAXINE Waters to enact by executive order or law an immediate moratorium to all residential and commercial mortgage payments and rents for those unable to pay due to COVID 19 or public health orders, such that no owner of property in the nation who is unable to pay through no fault of their own, should be required to pay mortgage during this health emergency. Nor should they accumulate additional debt or interest for unpaid mortgage payments. And no renter in the nation who is unable to pay through no fault of their own should be required to pay rent during this health emergency. Nor should they accumulate debt for unpaid rent. End Section three that the Clerk of the city and county of Denver shall affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that a copy be transmitted to Governor Jared Polis. Representative Diana DeGette, Senator Cory Gardner, Senator Michael Bennet, Speaker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Financial Services Committee Chair MAXINE Waters and President Donald Trump. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Committee or motion to advance. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that proclamation 20 dash 30350 be adopted. If you had moved in second to now or the comments from members of Council Council, would you like to go first? Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to my colleague, Councilman Haines, whose comments maybe be a minute early, but we're 100% on point. Why would we do a proclamation that's not binding? Well, because the residents of our city are hurting. And they have asked us from day one, the first communication I got when these orders came down and folks began to lose their jobs is how would they handle housing and what could we do to help? We have a rental utility assistance program. We stepped up and increased the application volume that's coming in through that. We have worked with our courts and advocated many council members, signed letters urging an eviction moratorium at the state level and continue to be advocates where we don't have the power to solve the problem directly. It is important for residents of Denver to know that we see you and we hear you. We know that small businesses are struggling with their rents. And we know that property owners who depend on rental income and to pay their mortgages and those multifamily properties. This proclamation connects all three of those levels. Both the banks and the lenders, as well as the owners, as well as the renters. But at the bottom of that pyramid is the renters who are struggling and who are at risk of losing their housing and displacement. This is a challenge that, as Councilman Hines mentioned, is national and scale. And the conversation needs to be national in scale. And sometimes what we have in Denver City Council is the bully pulpit to say we want to be a part of that conversation with colleagues in California and New York, San Francisco and Seattle and other cities like Aurora, our neighbor who passed this proclamation, very similar proclamation just a couple of weeks ago. Thank you for your leadership, Rivera. But to say that we all need to be part of this conversation now, I got many questions today from folks, some of whom I think weren't sure and didn't understand that this was not a binding law. But beyond that, a question about whether it was a wise thing to do or not and what the details would be. And I think one of the things that's really important to highlight is when you raise a conversation, it's okay that it takes different directions. If our state and federal government take these proclamations and the calls of the residents who are calling into every show I've heard every town hall, I've heard every call in show with the news. This question has been asked if they are hearing those voices, perhaps they have an idea we didn't propose in this proclamation. Maybe they know whether it should be 90 days or 120 days, or what the exact eligibility criteria might be to demonstrate an inability to pay. As Councilman Haynes mentioned, it is it is up to those levels of government to debate those details. And I hope the residents who reached out to us today reach out and share their ideas for other ways to tackle this massive housing crisis at the scale at which we have done the pandemic, because the two are connected. If we cannot keep people housed, we will see an increased risk for themselves of homelessness and increased risk of transmission, as we are seeing now. The challenge we have with more people seeking congregate care in homeless shelters than we have hotel rooms to put up. So each of these things is related. If we want people to stay at home, if we want them to honor social distancing, we have to ensure they won't lose their housing. It is absolutely integral to the public health of these orders, and that's the case we're making today. I am also welcome to answer any questions from my colleagues to the best of my ability. Again, this is not a policy, it is a conversation starter. But I know that there may be questions and we were unable to have committee. So with that, I thank you and urge my colleagues to join us in sending the message that this is the right conversation to have at the state and federal levels. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman and Councilman Owens, you already made some comments. Is there anything else that you wanted to add? Yeah, I did. Just a couple of words to thank you, Mr. President. Just a couple of more statistics. The percentage of people nationally who could pay rent in March was 82%, and in April it dropped to 69%, and that's nationally. So we just had a 12% drop in the ability of renters to pay their rent just in the span of a month. And since April 1st, we've had an additional 1213 million Americans file for unemployment for the first time. So that's that percentage of people able to pay will continue to change and become even more taxing for us as a city, but also for us as Americans. And speaking of taxes, we we can't. Our taxes are going down because people aren't staying in hotels. People aren't buying things. And that's half of the city's budget is sales tax and lodgers tax. And so we're we're doing what we can to to to assist. But as Councilmember mentioned, we can't do it all alone at the local level. We can't even do it all alone at the state level. This is a national issue. It's an international issue. But but it's certainly something that we have to take care of as a nation. And I'm excited to give the support to my state and federal counterparts so that they can help get this done. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Next in the queue, household and tourism, we go to you. So go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President. We got a lot of calls in District three, both from landlords and property owners and affordable housing providers, as well as renters and residents. So this this action we're taking up nationally would have a profound impact. And I think even though what we're proposing is a is a symbolic gesture, just letting folks know where we're. Coming from when it comes to our city council. I think what it what it speaks to is what's needed is the entire continuum of housing. Looking at relief for residents. There will still be some folks who complete their rent, those who cannot their rent roads. Everyone has a bill to pay. And that's why this goes beyond just any requests around rent to mortgages and commercial as well. So I really just want to emphasize that for my residents in District three, I recognize how hard this is going to be. For the. Next year. If not longer, for all of you. And if. What we can do is send a message to. Those throughout the country and to our federal leadership. And we will thank you. If you don't have a home in America. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. A year from now, historians and visitors will read about what actions we took to help Denver ensure the future and vitality of our economy right now. And there will be plenty of time to play my Monday morning quarterback in the years to come. But what's important to the residents of Denver is how we help them today, because they're not getting a ton of help from a lot of places. Right now, the federal government is fighting over whose name is going to get printed on the texts that we're about to get. The state is working to do what it can, but it's facing an estimated two and a half billion dollar shortfall. And that leaves the city as the last line of support, or maybe better the first line of support for our residents and for our small businesses. And we are working around the clock to provide our residents that support. So this proclamation isn't asking for debt forgiveness forever. And it's not a law. Right. We're asking we're asking our government counterparts and the big banks that hold most of these mortgages and our fellow community members to come together in a compromise. And it may hurt a little bit now, but it will benefit everyone in the end. And we're not asking banks to walk away from income that's rightfully theirs forever. We're asking for a pause on this debt collection until our residences and our businesses, our residents and our businesses are steady, are on their feet, and our economy can reopen safely. And our office has received reports from our residents of landlords that are presumably applying for the financial assistance themselves, but failing to pass that on to their tenants. And that's simply not acceptable. That's not in the spirit in which these financial supports were meant to be utilized. And that's it's not okay. Because if there's one thing that's become abundantly clear in the last month, it's that we are all in this together and together we're going to get through this. But that's going to take a little bit of compromise. And the city is doing what it can. We're looking at taking a significant economic hit and making significant budget cuts, but we're still finding ways to provide the community support that our residents deserve, like the true a program and the expanding the bio program to help renters and small businesses and waving our parking fees and our interest on our property tax payments to help our property owners and small businesses. We've helped. We set up the $10 million COVID relief fund, and we're pursuing every possible financial avenue for reimbursement wherever we can, which is a huge job. So thank you to all of the city employees who are working on that. That's amazing. Is it perfect? No. Is it going to be enough for our residents? No. At the end of the day, it is not going to be enough. And so we are all in this together and together we'll get through this. If you live here now and you're a part of what makes the city the greatest city on the planet. But tonight I'm a yes vote and giving the keys of the city back to the people who built it, which is our small business owners and the hardworking people like our service workers who can't make ends meet right now because the help we're giving them simply isn't enough. And so I hope that our banks and the landlords who are able to will join us in that. So thank you very much to my colleagues for bringing this forward. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilmember. Next to Councilmember. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to my colleagues for bringing this forward and those of you who will support it tonight. While it is symbolic, it does send a strong message to the thousands of people who have been contacting us, asking us to stand in solidarity, asking us to help figure out a solution to this problem and where our hands are tied. As the legislative body, I think that this is an important statement to for us to make. And since we don't get to give the proclamation tonight to somebody or some group like we typically do, I'd like to list off some of the many organizations that had been working on the original rent cancelation rent freeze, mortgage freeze petition. And so those those individuals and organizations include Indigenous Voices of the Poor People's Campaign. Denver Black Educators Caucus. Black Lives Matter 50 to 80. Colorado Latino Forum. Colorado Rent Strike and Eviction Defense Front Range Mutual Aid Network Missing Indigenous Sisters Tools Initiative Johnstone of Inglewood City Council Warriors for High Quality Schools Invisible Front Range Resistance Tae Anderson DPS School Board Bobby La Brea, Colorado Poet Laureate Reverend Reverend Jessica Abel Chantelle Lewis RTT Board Goldie Vandal DC to President Tiffany Choi Hassan Latif Second Chance Center Second Chance Center as an Organization. Our Voices, Our Schools. The Kaleidoscope Project. Lorena Garcia, U.S. Senate Candidate. K.A. Johnson. Our Revolution. Metro Denver. Denver. Democratic Socialists of America. Colorado. No More Prisons Yes. Coalition Focus Points. Family Resource Center Roosters Boxing Club Recovery Lab Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition Doctors Sochi Bailes Aurora. Young Democratic Socialists of America How to Call Indivisible Denver Project Voice Democracy. Enter Colorado 9 to 5 Colorado Megan The Mere East Colfax East Colfax Neighborhood Association. Jasper, Colorado Jobs with Justice Together Colorado Indivisible Highlands Ranch Juan Marcano Abolish Ice Curls on the BLOCK Two dope teachers in the Mike Denver area Labor Federation, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local seven Colorado AFL-CIO, Asian Communities Together, Denver Artists for Rent Control and Colorado Peoples Alliance. Thank you all of you. Please is continue your activism. It's the only way that we can move forward together. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Next up, we're going to go to Councilmember when unmuted. And thank you. Hold on. Just like I unmuted you. Let me do it from here and then we'll start. Going over each other, I think. All right. Go ahead. Yeah. No, they can't. So maybe you do need an unmuted there. Very like a brave new world here. I know some people in my family would love to have that view, but right now for me, I wanted to thank Council English for working with me all weekend in the wording on this because it's beginning and actually much preferred. The resolve that Councilwoman CdeBaca had first proposed. But I am satisfied that in calling for the Governor to use the legal extent of his power to affect the situation, I think I think it's proper and right. So thank you, Councilman Kasich, for doing that. Thank you, Councilwoman CdeBaca, for your original wording, which I have been able to witness, is actually happening around the city. In fact, just afternoon, a woman who rents rental properties in the valley called my office and was very concerned about if the governor were able to somehow impose a rent moratorium, it would greatly affect her ability to carry on the business of the rental properties. But on the other hand, she is right now working with her tenants who are impacted by being unemployed or reduced hours and are not able to pay their rent. And she's working out deferrals, waivers and things like that. And I think a lot of our smaller landlords are doing I don't know what the corporate rental companies are doing on their own. And I also want to recognize that a lot of our banks and other financial institutions are working with their their mortgage as well. I can't speak for all financial institutions. She can't speak for any of them, but I can speak about my own. For instance, Firstbank Colorado already has a program to defer payments to waive fees for people who are affected. I think what we want to tell folks is if you can pay your rent and your camp, please continue to do so. Otherwise, I think every effort should be taken in line with the spirit of this proclamation to work with people whose lives are being devastated right now by this this virus and the reaction to it and what's happening in the economy. And so having worked through the weekend with the councilwoman on this subject, I'm happy to support it and to vote yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman, next up, we're going to go to you, Councilmember Cashman, and go ahead. Hold on. Just as I can remember, we're having trouble hearing you and Chambers. All right, we should. Okay. Great. Thank you. I want to repeat a little bit of the point that Councilman Flynn just made. This proclamation should not in any way be interpreted as anti landlord. That we recognize that we're calling on our state and federal leaders to craft what is a complex solution that needs to protect all sides. Well, especially the mom and pop landlord situation that there the monthly rent is necessary for their basic living expenses and that needs to be taken into account. I also want to salute the many landlords, big and small, around the city who've been proactive in addressing this situation, reducing rents, giving grace periods. But as I said earlier in announcements when I was talking about so many people are going around the city wearing their masks and social distancing and others many, many others not doing so. We're faced with a large number of landlords in Denver and around the country who are not being responsible citizens. And we as a society, we can't afford that. We cannot afford to have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people thrown out onto the street because of the situation. They had nothing to do with creating hard, hard working people that have just been put out of work by a situation not their own. So I as well, in recognizing the complexity of the problem and the solution, I want to thank Councilwoman CdeBaca and Hines Company for the hard work in moving this issue forward. I look forward to supporting it tonight. Thank you, Councilmember. Next up, we're going to go to Councilmember Sandoval. Go ahead, Councilmember. Thank you, Mr. President. So I would like to offer my support for this proclamation as well. And just to remind my constituents that a proclamation is not policy, we are asking our Colorado delegation and other national leaders who have more power than us at the municipal level to have this conversation. And it is an outline, as Councilman Canete talked about. It doesn't specify policy or eligibility or time period. It just calls upon them having a conversation and as though a proclamation. For me, this proclamation does tell the residents of our community that their pain is heard, that we support the effort to alleviate their pain, and most importantly , that we recognize the connection between people being able to stay in their homes and protecting their health by slowing the spread of the virus. So when you have a stay at home order and you're not able to pay your rent, it goes it's counterintuitive of what we're asking from the public and the public health order. So absolutely, we need to support this. And I have a rental property and I've reached out proactively to my tenants. And so thank you for everyone in North Denver who's been proactive and who's working with their tenants until we can come up with some solution. Thank you for the three councilmembers who worked on this and everyone else who had an effort into getting this passed. And I will be offering my support tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Right. I don't see any other hands raised. So last chance to flag me on comments. And we are going to go over to Madam Secretary and do a roll call. Black back when Herndon clicked for Torres, Silverman got. I. We're going to go through slowly on these remote ones because this is causing a lot of feedback in chambers and we're going back to court. So, Madam Secretary, if you could just can go one at a time and just pause for a couple seconds. Council members, unmute yourself, your remote state, your vote, and then we'll move on once we can hear it in chambers. So we get started again with the ones who are not here. That's. I think they could hear you. So what happens in Europe? I. Gillmor, I. Times I. Question. I swear. To you. Sandoval. I. Council president. Madam Secretary, please both announce the results. 13 eyes. 13 is progress. In theory, 15 has been adopted. Thank you very much. And thank you for your patience, everyone. I was you're going to go fast forward for you. And once again, 15 minutes to read the bills are Internet.