Great to see Oakland renters are getting help from California property owners who are assisting their tenants now that many of the pandemic rent moratoriums in the State are ending.
Hats off to the California Apartment Association (CAA) for stepping up and providing information to help renters in Alameda County navigate the end of rent moratoriums. The CAA established a website to help tenants in Alameda County and provide advice at AlamedaRentersRights.Com. The unbiased and thoughtful website provides real information to help renters. Two members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors offered to help tenants by making videos to promote the CAA informational site so that everyone could benefit from having independent information.
As usual, tenant’s advocates group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), complained bitterly after more than one million people saw the CAA’s informational website. The irony of this shouldn’t be lost on tenants or the public. Despite being self-proclaimed tenant advocates, ACCE has provided no helpful information to tenants, but instead complains when property owners actually take positive action to assist renters. ACCE is facing hard times as landlords have stepped up when ACCE has let renters down.
Recall that ACCE grew out of the discredited, defunded, and now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The ACCE predecessor went bankrupt after ACORN leaders were found to have embezzled monies.
The California Apartment Association AlamedaRentersRights.com debuted in advance of the April 29 scheduled end date of the Alameda County eviction moratorium. Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors confirmed the moratorium would end on that date.
The moratorium was established to aid renters financially affected by the COVID pandemic. However, it did not specify eligibility criteria or require proof of COVID-19-related financial difficulties. As a result, some tenants who could afford to pay rent opted not to, causing significant strain on housing providers who are now seeking county assistance to recover their losses.
Opponents of lifting the moratorium argued that it would leave renters without rights and protections. However, Joshua Howard, the executive vice president of local public affairs for the CAA, countered this claim.
“Renters in Alameda County have rights, as California and many cities within the county offer some of the strongest renter protections in the nation,” Howard said.
He added that the website’s purpose is to ensure all renters in Alameda County are aware of the laws protecting them, including the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, recognized as the most comprehensive statewide tenant protection legislation in the United States.
Here are some of the rights and protections highlighted on the site:
· –Protection from eviction for unpaid rent during the eviction moratorium period.
· –Just cause requirements to evict a tenant and protections against landlord retaliation and harassment.
· –Limits on rent increases.