{"id":37216,"date":"2021-07-01T09:29:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37216"},"modified":"2021-07-01T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T16:29:44","slug":"as-housing-gap-widens-rural-californians-run-out-of-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37216","title":{"rendered":"AS HOUSING GAP WIDENS \u2013 RURAL CALIFORNIANS RUN OUT OF HOMES"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_2 et_pb_with_background et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_1\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_2  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_post_title et_pb_post_title_0 et_pb_bg_layout_light  et_pb_text_align_left\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_title_container\">\n<p class=\"et_pb_title_meta_container\">by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a title=\"Posts by Mark Hedin\" href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/author\/mark\/\" rel=\"author\">Mark Hedin<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<span class=\"published\">Jun 30, 2021<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/category\/housing\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Housing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_3 et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_2\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_2_3 et_pb_column_3  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_image et_pb_image_1\"><span class=\"et_pb_image_wrap \"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7926\" title=\"Screenshot (78)\" src=\"https:\/\/secureservercdn.net\/104.238.68.196\/99t.7da.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Screenshot-78.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secureservercdn.net\/104.238.68.196\/99t.7da.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Screenshot-78.png 730w, https:\/\/secureservercdn.net\/104.238.68.196\/99t.7da.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Screenshot-78-300x60.png 300w\" alt=\"EMS provides research, writing and translation services to Ethnic Media on the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.\" width=\"auto\" height=\"auto\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p><em>From left to right: Kristina Rosales, Housing Team, Western Center; Sara Kimberlin, Senior Policy Analyst, California Budget and Policy Center; Francisco Due\u00f1as, Executive Director, Housing Now!; Larry Halstead, activist, political scientist, and Paradise Camp Fire survivor; Leslie Layton, Editor, ChicoSol<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_1  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p><strong>By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Responding to new data on California\u2019s growing housing shortage, a panel of housing policy experts convened by Ethnic Media Services on June 24 documented how dire the situation has become \u2013 with rural California now on the front lines.<\/p>\n<p>The presenters also offered good news: Both the federal government and the state of California were extending their eviction moratoriums for people behind on rent due to COVID-19-related income losses.<\/p>\n<p>Those moratoriums and rent subsidies have been life-savers during the pandemic. In California, the eviction moratorium has forestalled thousands of evictions, according to Tina Rosales of the Western Center on Law and Poverty. Another speaker, Francisco Duenas, executive director of the Housing Now coalition, shared data crediting those measures with preventing 186,000 COVID cases and 6,000 deaths in California.<\/p>\n<p>In states where eviction moratoriums have expired, Rosales said, the homeless population has grown 200%.<\/p>\n<p>But the moratorium could be more effective.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government has provided California $5.2 billion to spend helping tenants and landlords cover rental payments. \u201cNot a lot of that has gone out,\u201d Rosales said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"CALIFORNIA'S HOUSING GAP WIDENS \u2014 POLICY MAKERS TACKLE EVICTIONS, MOUNTING DEBTS, RURAL SHORTAGES\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WvT06HiEt7g?feature=oembed&amp;amp;wmode=opaque\" name=\"fitvid0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Critics have blamed a cumbersome, lengthy application process, via the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/housing.ca.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Housing Is Key<\/a>\u00a0program, as one of the causes for the backlog.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the application has been streamlined and more languages have been added.\u00a0 The state moratorium has been extended by three months, to Sept. 30, and California is increasing the percentage of unpaid rent it will cover, from 80% to 100%, provided the tenant has paid at least 25% of the amount due.<\/p>\n<p>Rosales emphasized that the state needs 1.2 million more very-low-income \u2013 less than half of the area median income (AMI) \u2014 housing units, and it needs to ensure that development does not displace people and meets environmental guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Unprecedented natural disasters are leading to a rapid rise in homelessness in rural areas \u2013 even more than in urban areas, Rosales added.\u00a0 She said that one of the best ways to prevent homelessness is to expand legal service providers for people who need them, especially in rural areas.\u00a0 Currently the ratio statewide is 5,500 to 1.\u00a0 Legal help will be in high demand when eviction moratoriums do expire, she noted.<\/p>\n<p>Sara Kimberlin, of the nonpartisan California Budget and Policy Center, shared some of her organization\u2019s findings about the demographics of the housing crisis,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething\u00a0 that\u2019s really striking about housing affordability in California is just how widespread the problem really is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone thinks about urban areas with really high rental costs. But in parts of the state where rents are lower, income tends to be lower. So there is a major mismatch between how much people are making and how much they\u2019re paying towards rent.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"CALIFORNIA'S HOUSING GAP WIDENS \u2014 POLICY MAKERS TACKLE EVICTIONS, MOUNTING DEBTS, RURAL SHORTAGES\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h3DLAw93xtY?feature=oembed&amp;amp;wmode=opaque\" name=\"fitvid1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>About 44% \u2014 17 million \u2014 of the state\u2019s residents are renters, Kimberlin said. Even before COVID, more than half were paying over 30% of their total income in rent \u2013 a level deemed unaffordable \u2014 and 25% were paying more than 50%. This is particularly true for black and Latinx households, who also had a disproportionate share of job losses in the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Duenas, of the Housing Now coalition of more than 100 organizations, also had some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.housingnowca.org\/preventingevictionepidemic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">data on the extent of the housing crisis<\/a>\u00a0and who\u2019s being affected.<\/p>\n<p>At least a million people, he said, in 730,000 households, are behind on their rent in California, by an average of $4,400. Of those, he said, 78% are people of color, 77% are low-income, and 57% are unemployed.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure to pay rent exacerbated the pandemic with people crowding together, enabling the spread of COVID-19, he said, and 64% cut back on essentials such as food and medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Also on the panel were Leslie Layton, reporter for Chico Sol, and Larry Halstead who, along with many neighbors, was burned out of his home by the 2018 Creek Fire and has spent two years trying to find permanent housing. The strain eventually broke up his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dWe really feel we\u2019re on the front lines up here in terms of climate change,\u201d Layton said. She and Halstead described how homelessness was already a problem in the area when the fire hit, and the increased demand for housing, combined in some cases with the money available from insurance payouts some people received, had pushed housing costs higher.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how simple it can be to become homeless,\u201d Halstead said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Mark Hedin\u00a0|\u00a0Jun 30, 2021\u00a0|\u00a0Housing From left&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37218,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216\/revisions\/37218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}