Half Moon Bay Review
By Clay Lambert
When California extended the state’s eviction moratorium through September, lawmakers were acknowledging both process problems getting federal money where it’s needed as well as the scope of an economic problem that is both personal and societal.
Of those, the bureaucracy is the easiest target in this instance.
The state has $47 million in federal funding as part of the Housing is Key program that is meant to ease the burden of back rent for those in arrears and also to make whole frustrated landlords who are also victims of the pandemic. Last week, state Sen. Josh Becker, whose district includes the Coastside, acknowledged that getting rental assistance entailed filling out a 32-page report. It took hours and was frankly too much to ask of low-income renters who, for the most part, don’t have the benefit of accountants and lawyers to keep their records in order. The state has lately taken steps to address the process and it’s now a 30-minute task with instructions in several languages. Nevertheless, the state has still doled out only a fraction of what is available.