Laserfiche WebLink
�= Community <br />Legal Aid SoCal <br />Advocates for Justice in Orange and Los Angeles Counties <br />May 5, 2020 <br />Mayor Miguel Pulido <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, California 92701 <br />RE: Executive Order No. 2-2020 — Letter of Support <br />Dear Mayor Pulido and Members of the City Council: <br />Community Legal Aid SoCal writes in support of the City of Santa Ana's <br />Executive Order No. 2-2020. Promoting housing stability is crucial in the face of <br />the ongoing public health crisis and the City's Order helps ensure tenants will have <br />a safe place to stay as long as the shelter in place order is in effect. <br />The Rent Freeze is Necessary to Protect the Health, Safety, and Lives of Santa <br />Ana Residents. <br />The COVID19 crisis has disproportionately affected low income residents. Those <br />with low incomes tend to live in more crowded conditions and are more often <br />subject to displacement. Finding a space where they may shelter 6 feet away from <br />others can be an impossible task. By freezing rents at their current rates, the City of <br />Santa Ana is helping reduce the impact of this crisis on low income individuals and <br />families by helping to ensure they will be able to afford their rent and have a safe <br />place to live. <br />Our organization has served the Santa Ana community for many years and we <br />continue to serve the residents of Santa Ana during this crisis. Each day we receive <br />calls from tenants who do not know how they will be able to pay their rent because <br />they lost their employment due to COVID19. Unemployment Insurance may cover <br />some of their expenses, however, if landlords are allowed to increase rents during <br />this time, it is extremely unlikely these household will be able to keep up with their <br />rent payments or they may have to choose between paying rent and buying life <br />sustaining necessities such as food and medicine. <br />The rent freeze was properly enacted because it was put in place under the City's <br />emergency and police powers. Under the City's Municipal Code and Charter, the <br />City may proclaim laws that are necessary to protect the health and safety of its <br />www.communitylegalsocal.org • 2101 North Tustin Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92705 <br />800.834.5001 •714.571.5200 h� <br />