Page 52 - AAGLA-FEB 2022

The Sacramento Update
Continued from page 51
Backyard), SPUR Urban Center, and the Housing Building Alliance all joined CalRHA and AAGLA in support of the bill.
• Assembly Bill 854 (Lee) - Withdrawal of Accommodations. Assembly Bill 834 prohibits property owners who have owned rental accommodations for less than five years from using or threatening to use the Ellis Act to withdraw rental accommodations and places other limits on the use of the Ellis Act. CalRHA and AAGLA have been part of a larger coalition opposing the bill. The bill passed in the Assembly Housing Committee on January 12th by a 6-2 margin voted along party lines.
• Assembly Bill 1241 (Jones-Sawyer) - Ban the Box for Rental Applications. Fortunately, we have heard that the author will be pulling this bill from the Housing committee hearing, which is the first AAGLA legislative victory of the year. This bill would have restricted asking about an applicant’s criminal background during the application phase of the rental process.
The deadline for new bills to be introduced is February 18, 2022, after which time we will have a better sense of most of the legislative fights we will be facing next year. In the meantime, Senator Glazer and forty other Legislators will be
introducing a bill to increase the renters tax credit. Under the bill, more than 2 million renters would get much needed financial relief. The bill would increase the renter’s credit for the first time since 1979 and reform the credit to give more help to single parents and the most vulnerable Californians.
Rent Assistance Update
Since the state applied to the U.S. Treasurer for $1.9 billion in rent assistance money from the pot that is being reallocated from other states, the state has been awarded $65 million for their first allocation and are in the process of submitting another request due at the end of the month. As of January 11th, the state has given out over $1.7 billion in rent relief, out of the nearly $6.88 billion requested. CalRHA and AAGLA both continue to work with HCD on the implementation and advocate for more funding to the program. For more information, please visit Housing is Key.
52 FEBRUARY 2022 • WWW.AAGLA.ORG
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Please make checks payable to: AAGLA PAC c/o Reed & Davidson, LLP 515 S Figueroa Street, Suite 1110 Los Angeles, California 90071 Attention: Cary Davidson, Treasurer
Kate Bell, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kate Bell Strategies was most recently a Partner of Capitol Advocacy, which is ranked among California’s top lobbying firms. Ms. Bell’s firm specializes in lobbying, strategic planning, coalition building, budget advocacy, procurement, and political involvement. Kate Bell Strategies and Capitol Advocacy represent the interests of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles through its affiliation with the California Rental Housing Association. Both firms are based in Sacramento. For more information, please visit www.katebellstrategies.com