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Diana From: almarosaromero53@gmail.com <info@sg.actionnetwork.org> Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2020 2:34 PM To: eComment Subject: Council Meeting May 5th 2020 Agenda Item 60A Santa Ana City Council Santa Ana City Council, Dear Mayor Pulido and Santa Ana City Council, The COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis is a worldwide pandemic, posing social and economic threats to our community. Our community is extremely low-income, is primarily made up of renters, and many reside in multi -family households, and live in mixed -status households. We also know that a lot of families are largely uninsured or have inadequate access to healthcare. Because of this, we recognize how vulnerable our community is to this pandemic, susceptible to experiencing financial precarity and housing displacement. Equally alarming is that we particularly at risk of losing our lives. Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Orange County have been consistently growing, with 2,636 confirmed cases so far (as of 05/01/20). A large share of people in California, including Santa Ana residents are losing theirjobs and therefore are unable to pay rent. California has surpassed over 3 million people filing for unemployment benefits and Orange County has reported over 13,200 job losses. These are astounding numbers. We cannot expect for people to pay back their rent during the six month period while potentially experiencing rent increases, especially those who have accumulated immense debt, have no jobs to return to, have experienced significant reduced hours of work, and are ineligible for COVID-19 relief benefits because they are undocumented. It would be merely impossible for residents to catch up on rent. If residents in Santa Ana do not receive an expansion of the current rent freeze, make no mistake, this will have devastating impacts for residents, including hous elessness, and death. Without equitable housing, residents in Santa Ana will be displaced, leaving them at significant risk of exposure to the coronavirus and prolonged economic precarity spanning generations. Santa Ana residents call on you as elected officials to act urgently to prevent what could potentially be thousands of working families facing houselessness, displacement and severe economic destabilization. Specifically, we call on you now to maintain and expand the rent freeze to six months after the emergency orders are lifted. Please ACT NOW to protect Santa Z�