After pleading for relief, Glendale tenants now have 12 months to pay back rent missed during pandemic
Glendale renters will now have 12 months, instead of six, to repay late or missed rent after the coronavirus emergency, as Glendale officials try to respond to residents’ fears about being able to keep a roof over their head during the crisis that has brought job loss and economic woes to many.
City Council members voted to extend the pay-back period, known as forbearance, during a teleconferenced meeting on Tuesday evening, about a week after the city of Los Angeles implemented a similar measure.
The 12-month period would begin once the emergency period ends, which in Glendale is currently set for April 30.
“[This is] what I would call the second crisis, and the bigger crisis, which is … the economic plight of many people, not only renters, but, in particular, renters,” said Councilman Dan Brotman, who is an economics professor, during the meeting.
In a city with a population of 200,000, often said to be comprised of 60% renters, about 120,000 residents could be affected by the City Council’s order.
During the recent meeting, council members also implemented a freeze on late fees or penalties associated with late rent. It was decided that renters seeking emergency eviction protections would no longer need to show they have been impacted by the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the city in line with what Glendale officials said was already a state order.
For weeks, Glendale renters have been calling in to City Council meetings to share harrowing stories of jobs and income disappearing overnight because of the virus. Many have called for outright rent forgiveness.
Haley Hopkins, a 23-year-old Glendale resident who said she lost her blue-collar job in the arts industry after the pandemic struck, has been calling in regularly to push the council to temporarily forgive rent rather than kick the can down the road.
“I’m going to keep calling until something’s done about this to actually help protect people,” Hopkins said during the recent meeting.
“A lot of folks struggled to, or completely couldn’t, pay rent last month,” Hopkins added. “And guess what? That’s going to keep happening, and it will continue to become more and more difficult for more and more people.”
Karen Kwak, a member of the Glendale Tenants Union, said the extension is better than nothing but “is still inadequate.”
A local renter who lost a part-time job because of the pandemic, Kwak said she’s taking on as much freelance work as a proofreader and editor as possible “because I’m desperately trying to make next month’s rent.” Still, she thinks if money expected from the recently passed federal stimulus package doesn’t arrive before May 1, it won’t be possible.
City officials have been taking gradually stronger steps to address economically suffering renters since the crisis began unfolding locally in earnest on March 16, when the city saw its first confirmed case of the virus, and officials promptly called a state of emergency.
However, council members said they weren’t ready to consider rent forgiveness during a previous meeting, citing possible legal complications and a domino effect it could have on property owners and workers in related industries.
Several days into the local emergency period, the council put a halt on evictions of both residential and commercial tenants who could prove that they were financially hurt by the pandemic.
About a week later, they paused all residential rent increases in the city for the duration of the emergency period.
A letter summarizing the emergency orders to date is slated to be sent to landlords by the end of this week, according to City Manager Yasmin Beers.
Councilman Brotman, who was sworn in at the end of March, surmised that the council would need to return to the issue of renter relief again, pointing to negative economic effects that will likely persist past the end of the emergency period.