What's at stake?
Eviction Protection is the last of the COVID-era initiatives aimed at helping renters in Fresno. Other programs, like the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and the Voucher Incentive Program, have already gone by the wayside.
A report due out at this week’s Fresno City Council meeting paints a grim picture of the local housing market, where the average monthly cost of rent over the last five years has climbed by a reported 42%.
On Thursday, the Fresno City Attorney’s Office is scheduled to present an update on the city’s Eviction Protection Program — an initiative city leaders scrambled to save just last month.
The workshop presentation outlines a roughly $2 to 2.5 million budget commitment needed to keep the tenant protection program alive for another year — money that could be harder to find this summer as the city also wrestles with a looming budget deficit projected north of $20 million.
In recent years, councilmembers have pushed to keep the renter aid program in the city’s budget after the mayor’s office excluded it in early budget drafts.
Last year, Councilmember Tyler Maxwell negotiated to keep eviction protection alive, with the city finally approving about $1.5 million of the $2 million he initially sought. In February, City Attorney Andrew Janz told the council the program was out of money and needed the remaining $500,000 to keep the lights on for the rest of the fiscal year.
“We are literally keeping people from becoming homeless,” Janz told the council in February.
Eviction Protection is the last of the COVID-era initiatives aimed at helping renters in Fresno. Other programs, like the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and the Voucher Incentive Program, have already gone by the wayside.
Cutting ERAP compounded the issues facing the eviction protection program, according to the new report, because the money provided by ERAP incentivized landlords and helped get eviction cases dismissed faster.
“Without ERAP, negotiations take longer,” the report notes.
That could be one of many factors contributing to the program’s workload in recent years, which has not slowed as expected.
“Post-COVID, we’ve seen an increase in cases (involving) complex legal issues, including severe habitability issues, requiring higher levels of service,” the city attorney’s report says.
In fact, as nearly all renters in Fresno already know, the city’s rental market has grown increasingly competitive — and expensive — in recent years.
The city attorney’s report notes that, in a county where nearly half of all homes are rentals, the December rental vacancy rate was just 3.8%, leaving few options for renters. The average monthly rent cost was $2,041 while the average monthly mortgage payment was $2,151.
And, the report notes, most Fresno County residents (59%) are already overburdened by the cost of housing — meaning they spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing, including about 64% of residents over the age of 65.
The EPP budget workshop is set for Thursday during the regular meeting of the Fresno City Council.
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