Rent relief is ending

We are grateful to live in San Mateo County and grateful to our county leaders who have done such an outstanding job navigating this pandemic. They made decisions based on science, decisions that showed true moral courage as they put policies in place, compassionate policies that left no one behind. Now, many of us are ready to have the pandemic behind us and to simply move on. And many of us are in a position to do that. However, for many others, the impact of the pandemic will be felt for years to come. For them there is no moving on.

On April 1, rent relief and eviction protection are slated to end. Yet, there are thousands on the brink of financial catastrophe and homelessness. Thousands of applicants are still waiting on months-old applications for rent relief because only a fraction of the relief money has been dispersed. Many people are unable to pay their rent on April 1 — even those who are working more than one full-time job. These are the essential workers we praised during the pandemic. Now some of these very people will be evicted with nowhere to go. They will lose their housing, their stability, their communities, their schools, their health and their dignity. It is imperative that these essential workers have a place to live here, in their communities. What is more “essential” than access to stable housing?

We understand that the rent relief and eviction moratorium were put in place to help people during the pandemic and were intended as “stop gap” measures and not long-term solutions. But maybe these compassionate policies can be a vital step toward a long-term solution.

People’s inability to afford rent was a hole in our social fabric before the pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the existing problem and brought into sharp relief the stark economic inequities in our county.

Landlords and tenants need one another, and we need to extend compassion to both. County programs have supported both in earlier phases of the pandemic and we urge this to continue, helping both landlords and tenants cope with the longer term economic impact from the pandemic. The recovery from the economic impact of the pandemic will take time especially for those most vulnerable in our county. The financial hardship built up over two years cannot be made to disappear simply with improved health circumstances. It is truly heart-breaking to hear the stories of families living in fear of eviction and the bleak future they face. We know homelessness and housing costs are the biggest struggles faced by too many people in San Mateo County. It is not morally right to add to these existing systemic problems.

As faith leaders in San Mateo County, we call upon our county leaders to extend and fund the rent relief program and accompanying protections against evictions. This combination remains a lifeline for many of our hardworking residents who have been financially devastated by the last two years and still cannot find stable employment and adequate hours. We ask that our local elected officials at the county and city level prepare emergency ordinances to prevent evictions in case our state leadership fails to act.

The San Mateo County website slogan is “All of California in one county.” We have the opportunity now to keep living up to that ideal of a truly inclusive county by holding firm in our commitments to address inequity and ensure that those working and attending school in our county can remain safely housed here. Let’s keep doing the things we did right and build on those right things to create a county that is more equitable and where more people who live here can truly belong.

The Rev. Dr. G. Penny Nixon is the senior pastor for the Congregational Church of San Mateo. The Rev. Brian Ferguson is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Redwood City which he began serving in 2020. He previously served congregations in Austin, Texas, for 12 years and is a resident of Redwood City. They are both members of the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort.