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When a global pandemic hits a state already gripped by a housing affordability crisis, the impact is both devastating and far-reaching. Those on the margins bear the brunt the hardest.
When a global pandemic hits a state already gripped by a housing affordability crisis, the impact is both devastating and far-reaching. Those on the margins bear the brunt the hardest. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
When a global pandemic hits a state already gripped by a housing affordability crisis, the impact is both devastating and far-reaching. Those on the margins bear the brunt the hardest. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

'Putting us out on the streets': Seniors face eviction amid deadly outbreak

This article is more than 4 years old

Two disasters are intersecting in California: the housing crisis and the coronavirus pandemic

At 82, Carley P Angell falls in the category for those at risk of serious illness if exposed to coronavirus. In two weeks, she could also end up in the same category as the tens of thousands in California who are at-risk and homeless.

Public health officials are issuing warnings for those in her age range to stay home and self-isolate, but Angell and the 11 other seniors remaining at the Brookdale San Pablo assisted living facility still face eviction at the end of the month.

“We are scared,” Angell said. “We realize we are a very vulnerable population. We’re the ones that coronavirus is hitting the hardest, and here we are, being forced out on to the streets with no place to go.”

When a global pandemic hits a state already gripped by a housing affordability crisis, the impact is both devastating and far-reaching. Those on the margins bear the brunt the hardest, forced to venture out to fight for their housing when public health warnings are discouraging people from social contact. “We’re caught between anxiety and terror,” Angell said. “Some of us don’t have places to go. We’ve been looking and we can’t afford them and the places we can afford are so awful, we and our children would not want us to go there.”

In a state with sky-high rents, more than are willing to admit teeter on the edge of housing insecurity. Self-quarantine without the option to work from home, or getting sick without paid sick leave could mean not being able to pay the bills. Fewer work shifts because no one is going out to eat, or a cancelled gig because the governor recommended postponing large gatherings could mean not being able to make rent. “So many of us are just one or two paychecks away from not being able to afford one of our basic needs, which is housing,” said Lupe Arreola, the executive director of Tenants Together.

In a state with 17m renters, more than 55% are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Arreola said she’s concerned that many more will end up homeless in California because of coronavirus – and before the outbreak is under control.

A street performer sits alone at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, 12 March 2020. Coronavirus cases in California are growing. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

“Being evicted is horrible, but being evicted during a global health crisis and during an affordability crisis is the making of a societal disaster that will further complicate being able to have positive public health outcomes,” she said.

The concern over the intersection of the coronavirus crisis and the housing crisis is enough that Sam Liccardo, the San Jose mayor, issued an eviction moratorium for people whose wages have been affected by coronavirus-related closures and cancellations. London Breed, the San Francisco mayor, issued a moratorium on Friday, and and Oakland is working on a similar measure as well.

“The impact of this is far and far-reaching,” said the San Francisco lawmaker Dean Preston, who introduced the legislation there. “There’s lost income for a lot of folks. There are direct health impacts. There’s cancellation of events, there are folks who are small business owners who are struggling to stay afloat. Everyone is trying to make sure the impact of that is mitigated.”

Though Merika Reagan considers herself lucky so far in terms of coronavirus-related cancellations, the panic and uncertainty is palpable on the pet care worker networks and message boards that she frequents.

Dog walkers are posting about their walks getting cancelled because their clients are working from home now. Pet sitters are losing jobs because their clients will no longer travel – Reagan, the owner of City Hikes Dog Walking and Pet Sitting, has had two cancellations and a third job fall through for this reason.

She thinks herself lucky, but when she tallied up her losses, she realized she missed out on half a month’s rent. Her $2,250-a-month housing cost is always a concern for her. But she’s pragmatically optimistic when it comes to the coronavirus crisis – if she loses more vacationers, she’ll make up the work elsewhere. “I’ll have to take on more walking clients, maybe two or three more, which will be murder on my ankles,” Reagan said.

But if she gets sick? “I don’t get sick,” she said. “My plan is to never get sick. That’s my plan. It sounds crazy, but that’s my plan.”

“In this business, if you don’t work you don’t get paid,” she explained. “It’s not like you get paid time off.”

Local lawmakers and tenant advocates hope that measures like an eviction moratorium can help ease the minds of workers like Reagan. “No one should have to choose between their housing and their health,” Arreola said.

But besides being the ethical choice, prohibiting evictions is strategic in curbing the spread of the virus, Preston said.

“One of the primary ways to prevent the spread of coronavirus is for folks to stay in their homes and if folks don’t have a home to go to, that’s impossible,” he said.

That’s why Angell and the seniors at Brookdale San Pablo are petitioning California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, to issue a moratorium on all evictions, coronavirus-related or otherwise, until the crisis passes.

The seniors at Brookdale San Pablo were alerted at the end of November that Brookdale, a national senior-living company, was not renewing its lease. They thought that maybe another company that specialized in assisted living would take over, but in January, they received eviction notices from the building’s owner – around the time coronavirus began to spread in China.

There were 83 of them originally, and some left, forced to move farther away from their doctors and their families. Now 12 remain, with the cloud of coronavirus hanging overhead. “The virus makes it much more difficult for us,” Angell said. “Everybody has been talking about the fact that even to go to look at a new place, if we got on paratransit and come back, it’s all risky.”

She and the other seniors are determined to stay until the end. They hope that the governor or the building’s owner will let them stay, at least until they’re out of danger of exposure.

“There is no place like this nearby at this price or at this quality,” Angell said. “They’re putting us out on the streets.”

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