Laserfiche WebLink
Metadata
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015 Laserfiche. All rights reserved.
Diana <br />From: Ignacio Lopez <info@sg.actionnetwork.org> <br />Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2020 2:26 PM <br />To: eComment <br />Subject: Council Meeting May 5th 2020 Agenda Item 60A <br />Santa Ana City Council Santa Ana City Council, <br />Dear Mayor Pulido and Santa Ana City Council, <br />The COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis is a worldwide pandemic, posing social and economic <br />threats to our community. Our community is extremely low-income, is primarily made up of <br />renters, and many reside in multi -family households, and live in mixed -status households. We <br />also know that a lot of families are largely uninsured or have inadequate access to <br />healthcare. Because of this, we recognize how vulnerable our community is to this pandemic, <br />susceptible to experiencing financial precarity and housing displacement. Equally alarming is <br />that we particularly at risk of losing our lives. <br />Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Orange County have been consistently growing, with 2,636 <br />confirmed cases so far (as of 05/01/20). A large share of people in California, including Santa <br />Ana residents are losing their jobs and therefore are unable to pay rent. California has <br />surpassed over 3 million people filing for unemployment benefits and Orange County has <br />reported over 13,200 job losses. These are astounding numbers. We cannot expect for <br />people to pay back their rent during the six month period while potentially experiencing rent <br />increases, especially those who have accumulated immense debt, have no jobs to return to, <br />have experienced significant reduced hours of work, and are ineligible for COVID-19 relief <br />benefits because they are undocumented. It would be merely impossible for residents to <br />catch up on rent. If residents in Santa Ana do not receive an expansion of the current rent <br />freeze, make no mistake, this will have devastating impacts for residents, including hous <br />elessness, and death. <br />Without equitable housing, residents in Santa Ana will be displaced, leaving them at <br />significant risk of exposure to the coronavirus and prolonged economic precarity spanning <br />generations. <br />Santa Ana residents call on you as elected officials to act urgently to prevent what could <br />potentially be thousands of working families facing houselessness, displacement and severe <br />economic destabilization. Specifically, we call on you now to maintain and expand the rent <br />freeze to six months after the emergency orders are lifted. Please ACT NOW to protect Santa <br />2.i <br />