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Salas, Diana From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Dear Councilmember Bacerra, Patricia Flores Yrarrazaval <pjyrarrazaval@gmail.com> Tuesday, May 05, 2020 5:09 PM Bacerra, Phil eComment Re: Rent Increase Moratorium - City Council Meeting 5/5/20 My name is Patricia Flores Yrarrazaval, and I am an educator in Santa Ana Unified School District and a lifelong resident of Santa Ana. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, school employees throughout the district have been working diligently to ensure that all of our students continue to have access to food, education, and emotional support throughout the quarantine, as we are all painfully aware of how much issues like housing, unstable employment, and food insecurity affect their families. It is because of these experiences that I am now writing to ask that you and your fellow councilmembers use your powers to stop rent increases beyond May 31 st. While the protections under the current moratorium are helpful, they will not be enough to protect low- income tenants from evictions once the state begins lifting emergency orders. From my work in SAUSD, I know how so many of our city's families struggled to pay rent even before the pandemic; after 3 months or more in quarantine, in a city where 87% of working adults in the city are non- essential workers, and 80% do not have the flexibility to work from home, it will take a long time for most of our residents to be able to financially recover enough to pay back owed rent. Allowing rents to increase during this time will make this already -challenging task near -impossible. This will harm our city's health in the long -run, as families will have less funds to purchase healthy foods and pay for medical expenses, and it will impede our city's economic recovery, as residents will not have the disposable income to spend at re -opening businesses. The best thing for our city's recovery from the worst health crisis of our time is to extend the moratorium on rent increases for at least 6 months after emergency orders are lifted, to allow residents to repay accumulated rent debts and rebuild our lives. I am deeply aware of how many interests you and the rest of the City Council must balance when making these kinds of decisions; but I assure you, this is in the best interest of every member of our community, including landlords, as this will allow us to consistently pay rents in the aftermath of the pandemic. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Patricia J. Flores Yrarrazaval Santa Ana Resident and Educator N'A