This week in affordable housing news…

State action:

• Growing percentages of California residents have begun to miss rent payments amidst high levels of unemployment and the expiration in July of federal assistance for workers who have lost their jobs. The San Jose Mercury News reported this week that September rent non-payments in the Bay Area more than doubled compared to last year—with between 16% to 18% of renters missing their rent in San Jose, San Francisco, and the East Bay, compared to 7% at this time last year.
• In Los Angeles, a new study finds that 22% of Los Angeles County tenants paid rent late at least once in the spring and summer—and 10% of renters missed at least one full rent payment before September. The study also found that tenants collecting unemployment insurance were 39% less likely to miss rent payments, while just 5% of households that hadn’t lost a job or fallen sick reported not paying the rent.
• With Congress still gridlocked over the next phase of stimulus, California received approval in August to join more than a dozen states receiving temporary $300-a-week unemployment benefits through a FEMA lost-wage program. These resources were made available through executive order after the U.S. Senate refused to take up a bill extending the $600-a-week benefit approved at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that, thus far, 3.1 million people have received three weeks of this new benefit, and the state has received approval to send out an additional two weeks of benefits. Another 1.2 million claimants still need to certify their eligibility but could receive benefits starting in September.

Federal action:

• The U.S. Senate did not advance a Republican “skinny” stimulus bill this week that would have extended the $300-a-week benefit through the end of the year. The $300 million proposal did not include resources for state or local governments—or any of the other economic assistance proposals in the $3 trillion stimulus package, the HEROES Act, approved by the House this spring.
• As the New York Times put it: “The failure of the measure to advance spoke to the rapidly dwindling chances that Congress will enact another recovery measure to ease the economic toll of the pandemic before November’s elections.”

ICYMI – Top news stories:

1 in 5 Tenants in LA Has Struggled to Pay Rent During Pandemic
City Watch LA
This rent crisis is particularly acute in Los Angeles and other high-cost cities, where a lack of affordable housing and the economic slowdown from COVID-19 intersect to threaten the stability of many households, according to a joint UCLA–USC report documenting the hardships faced by tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report traces those hardships overwhelmingly to lost work and wages as a result of the economic shutdown. 

Bay Area renters making fewer payments as pandemic lengthens
Mercury News
A growing percentage of Bay Area tenants missed rent in September as persistent unemployment and shrinking federal aid compounded the stress on renters and landlords. RealPage market analyst Adam Couch said renters are struggling more in high-cost markets like the Bay Area. Federal unemployment benefits early in the coronavirus crisis helped renters pay their bills. He cautioned that the Labor Day weekend likely delayed reporting of some payments. The drop in San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, Couch said, “is one of the largest that we’ve seen across the nation.”

Democratic squabbling doomed California’s “Year of housing production”. What will happen in 2021?
Cal Matters
For proponents of more housing production in California, the duplex debacle marked a fitting end to a frustrating year that began with pledges from Gov. Gavin Newsom and leading Democratic lawmakers to make it easier to build new housing. Infighting amongst Democratic lawmakers, exacerbated by the logistical and fiscal complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic, sunk not only the duplex bill but several other pieces of housing production legislation.