Dear friends and allies, In January of this year the California legislature passed a bill that quite remarkably has the ability to engender enthusiasm among landlords and tenants alike. On behalf of One San Mateo, I am writing to share news of this valuable piece of legislation and enlist your help in ensuring that our community gets the full benefit of it. With the twin blows of illness and job loss over the past year, many local renters have accumulated crushing amounts of rent debt, often in the tens of thousands of dollars. The flip side, of course, is that their landlords have not received their customary rent payments, a situation that has put a serious squeeze on some of the smaller mom-and-pops. SB 91, signed into law by Governor Newsom on January 29, 2021, sets up a new program that tackles this problem by making creative use of federal stimulus money. It relieves eligible tenants of their accumulated rent debt while making landlords substantially whole for the rent that has gone unpaid. The outlines of the program are simple: 1. If landlords agree to forgive 20 percent of the rent that went unpaid for the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, the State will pay them the other 80 percent. 2. Assuming the landlord takes the State up on its offer, the tenant is then permanently relieved of the full amount of the accumulated debt. Tenants must meet certain qualifications. For more details and to apply, please go to https://housingiskey.com. We are discovering that many members of the community are still completely unaware of SB 91. Are you a small landlord yourself? Do you know of landlords in your congregations or service clubs? Do you have neighbors who are landlords? If so, please encourage them to learn about this novel program of relief. If you are a renter with COVID-related rent debt, please email us at onesanmateo@onesanmateo.org for further information and help. SB 91 has the potential to be a high-impact win-win that brings important relief to both landlords and tenants. But first they must learn about it! Please join us in spreading the word and help to keep people in their homes. Sincerely, Karyl Eldridge Vice Chair of One San Mateo P.S. Faith in Action Bay Area is offering landlords help with the application process. To avail yourself of this help, please contact abby@faithinactionba.org. | 
