California State Assemblyman Sean Chiu recently introduced a bill to extend the eviction ban until the end of 2021. Last Friday (18), the Bay Area Housing Coalition gathered a large number of vehicles with slogans such as “Housing Killer Yoh Shin-Fook” and “Communist Yoh Shin-Fook” to march outside Yoh’s San Francisco residence to express the landlords’ strong discontent.
On Friday, a motorcade of local landlords marched outside the San Francisco residence of California State Assemblymember Sean Chiu in opposition to his recently introduced AB15 bill.
The bill would extend the eviction ban of AB 3088 to December 31, 2021, and would require tenants to pay only 25% of their total rent before the bill expires in order to avoid eviction until 2022.
Protester Erika Hathaway: “This is terrible. How are landlords going to pay taxes if they’re not paying their rent? Everyone should have a way to make a living, that’s our civil rights, and this bill is an infringement of our rights.”
AB15, if passed, would continue AB3088, which passed in March of this year, making the eviction ban effective for a period of 22 months. Landlords would have to fight in small claims court for unpaid rent, but would continue to be responsible for property taxes and maintenance costs at the same time.
Protester Erika Hathaway: “How will landlords get their rent back from small claims court? The maximum amount that can be taken to small claims court is only $10,000, which is too low a limit and will encourage delinquent tenants. Eventually it will lead to communism, because socialism always leads to communism, and for now this is just the first step.”
Since March, California has repeatedly extended the ban on keeping landlords from evicting tenants, and many landlords have cried that some tenants are deliberately not paying their rent because they are protected by the bill. Some landlords are even in the predicament of struggling to pay their bank loans and losing money backwards.
Landlord Kathy Lin: “The property tax has doubled for the whole year, I can’t afford it, I haven’t received any rent for the whole year. Now I have to sell my house, and it really hurts, because that’s where my daughter grew up. I had no plans to sell, but I’m really at the end of my rope.”
The organizers of the march pointed out that AB3088 has been maliciously used by some tenants to justify their non-payment of rent on the grounds that their income has been reduced or they have lost their jobs due to the epidemic. Therefore, they hope to march in a motorcade to send a voice of protest to Khoo Sin Hock, hoping that lawmakers will understand the plight of landlords and avoid damaging the housing rental market.
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