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March 17, 2020 Mayor Pulido and City Councilmembers City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza P.O. Bo 1988, M31 Santa Ana, CA 92701 Xennedy i • M M I S S 1 • www. kennedyco mmission.org 17701 Cowan Ave., Suite 200 Irvine, CA 92614 949 250 0909 Fax 949 263 0647 Re: 55C: LOCAL EMERGENCY DUE TO THE PANDEMIC CREATED BY THE COVID-19 VIRUS Dear Members of the Council, The Kennedy Commission is a broad based coalition of residents and community organizations that advocates for the production of homes affordable for families earning less than $20,000 annually in Orange County. Formed in 2001, the Commission has been successful in partnering and working with jurisdictions in Orange County to create effective policies that has led to the new construction of homes affordable to lower income working families. In light of the recent outbreak of the highly contagious Coronavirus disease within California, the potential economic toll of the pandemic, and requests by public officials, employers, and universities for employees to work from home we ask that you immediately docket an emergency ordinance that would provide a moratorium on all rental increases, evictions and foreclosures within Santa Ana. In Santa Ana this is particularly important as it is one of the densest cities in the nation, with the highest percentage of people living under the federal poverty line compared to the rest of the country. Given our state's high costs of housing and the extensive rent and mortgage burden for many California families, we worry that any loss of wages related to the outbreak of COVID 19 will only further imperil with homelessness our most at -risk families. We know that the need to protect residents that live paycheck to paycheck from the economic fallout of this virus includes protecting them against facing eviction and homelessness which would only further spread this disease and make its containment harder if people don't have a home to care for the health, safety and welfare of their families. As you may know, many other cities have already issued ordinances' protecting their residents against evictions amid this crisis and on March 16th Governor Newsom said, "Over the next few weeks, everyone will have to make sacrifices -- but a place to live shouldn't be one of them. I strongly encourage cities and counties to take up this authority to protect Californians." As a representative of a California municipality, the state with the highest homeless population in the country, the need to protect residents facing eviction and homelessness and the potential spread of this disease is of paramount importance to the health, safety and welfare of your constituents. Public health departments information on how to stop the spread of this disease lists the importance of "wash(ing) your hands often with soap and water" and if sick to "stay home." Tragically, for those families and individuals evicted or foreclosed on, into homelessness these suggestions become all but impossible to adhere to. Working for systemic change resulting in the production of homes affordable to Orange County's extremely low-income households