#CancelRent: More than a Slogan

By John Broadway

On Thursday, December 3, Healthy LA hosted an online discussion about cancelling rent and mortgages for Los Angeles renters and homeowners in the face of the pandemic’s devastating economic toll. Over 1,500 people tuned in from across the country. And it’s no wonder - over 260,000 Angelenos losing their jobs since March has presented a nearly inevitable houselessness and debt crisis. This event brought together renters, homeowners, landlords, advocates, and local politicians for a discussion on actions we must take to protect vulnerable Angelenos, and set a model for the rest of the country.

Three Angelenos shared personal stories detailing how the pandemic’s economic toll threatened their livelihood.

Nancy Martinez, a leader with Strategic Action for a Just Economy (SAJE), shared how she was laid off with no return. Although she received some rental assistance, her debt grew to $10,000. Rent was already difficult to make. But with this debt in addition to future rent payments and no job, it is nearly impossible.

Then Tanya, an artist, small business owner, and first time homeowner in East LA spoke about how all her jobs were cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, forcing her to lay off all her employees. She’s still trying to pay back rent she owes the studio landlord. As a homeowner, she was able to utilize mortgage forbearance, allowing her to be able to continue providing food for her family. 

Fanny Ortiz, a single mother of five, went last; she’s a community organizer living in a neighborhood where most people work two or three jobs to afford to live. Fanny faces an economic crisis after losing her job due to COVID-19. Her landlord has been understanding, but she’s afraid they will lose the building if they can't pay their mortgage.

Their emotional testimonies humanized this issue, highlighting why we need to pass policies now to protect Angelenos. While corporate landlords buy up foreclosed property for future profit, hundreds of thousands of people, like Tanya, Fanny, and Nancy, are on the brink of losing their homes in the midst of a raging pandemic that requires us to be isolated from others. 

The platform explanation kicked off with a video to illustrate key components.

The panel discussion afterward dove into specifics. Moderated by Pamela Augustin, a community organizer with Eastside LEADS, the panelists included Fanny Ortiz, Councilmember Mike Bonin (11th District), Councilmember-elect Nithya Raman (4th District), Guadalupe Duran-Medina, representing County Supervisor Hilda Solis of District 1, Faizah Malik, Public Counsel attorney, and Walter Cabrera, a small landlord from South East Los Angeles.

It was kicked off by Fanny, asking those who were policy makers what they would do to support tenants like her. Councilmember Bonin energetically espoused his support to cancel rent for all Angelenos in need — documented or undocumented — based on moral reasoning: staying housed during a pandemic is crucial to maintaining health. Afterwards, he made a poignant remark when he brought the issue back to economics.

“This isn’t just rent relief for tenants, this is an economic stimulus package. It’s probably one of the most important economic stimulus packages we can approve.”

Councilmember-elect Raman echoed support, mentioning the necessity of helping small landlords like Walter, but Walter remained hesitant.

He, along with his mother and aunt, invested their life savings in their house, including a back unit that they rent to three tenants. Walter sees the tenants as family, so he was crestfallen when two of the three tenants lost their jobs. He worked with his tenants to gameplan rent payment, but then his mother lost her job as well. Now they simply don’t have enough to cover the mortgage. Having no desire to evict his tenants, yet without a safety net for the future, Walter fears cancelling rent means he will unjustly lose his property. 

Fanny responded saying she “didn’t want [him] to lose [his] property.” But then she rightly named that folks like her are already not able to pay rent, so putting the responsibility on to people who don’t have the money misses the point. “Canceling rent doesn’t impact you in any more of a negative way than not getting rent now. Both of us need relief.”

But the platform covers this exact issue, and Faizah stepped in to deliver more specifics.

The small landlord hardship fund will provide relief to landlords who own 4 or fewer units.  Faizah named that “it doesn’t help tenants if their rent is cancelled but then their landlord is forced to sell their property to a corporate landlord like Blackstone, and the tenant has to deal with a steep rent hike and eviction later down the road.” This is what happened in the last financial crisis.

One key question is where the money will come from for this fund, and Raman jumped in to explain the financial options available and further contextualize the proposal as a proactive approach to a potentially exacerbated crisis.

“Can we afford to push even more Angelenos into homelessness? No, we’re paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year just to manage our homelessness crisis.”

She noted that this investment was one worth making and that we would be in a better place financially later on if we took this bold action now. She went on to list funding sources that she felt would be viable to look into, such as the future federal relief packages, state sources of funding like the mortgage settlement fund, and savings from no interest municipal loans, such as the Municipal Liquidity Facility (should the terms be changed). She went on to say that the City and County need to be “actively looking” into other options.

As a representative of the County, Guadalupe noted the commitment they have to this issue. She admitted the County’s $5 million mortgage relief plan wasn’t enough, and that they are exploring options for a Responsible Banking Ordinance (RBO) that will dictate what banks the County does business with. A strengthened County RBO could protect tenants and small landlords by incentivizing banks into forgiving rent/mortgage payments while penalizing them from engaging in predatory practices. 

As the discussion neared a close, Walter was fired up with support for the proposal. He wondered what the hold-up was in putting pressure on banks and making this happen. Councilmember Bonin assured the next step would be discussing this with other council members — only six of whom would need to agree in order to pass the proposal. 

But it isn’t just the LA County and City looking into this. Pamela noted that many elected officials had joined the audience including the City of Cudahy, Alhambra, Culver City, West Hollywood, Burbank, staff from Council District 8 in LA, and even representatives from Senator Maria Elena Durazo’s office.

One thing was clear: this issue is far reaching, and people throughout the county - whether renter, homeowner, or small landlord - are desperately hurting for relief. With electeds from across the county in attendance, there was a sense of solidarity. At the end, viewers were called to action and now you are too!

Get LA elected officials to #CancelRent and #CancelMortgages by signing the petition.