Measure O Contract (Anti-Displacement Services Agreement) Clarifying Resolution Report
January 11, 2022
Attachment 6
The following chart shows some of the many Measure O Contract accomplishments and activities directed to the realization of the two main goals of the agreement: 1) provide legal services and 2) advance tenant advocacy and education to prevent displacement in the City.
Staffing YUCA and Nuestra Casa each hired staff members to educate East Palo Alto residents about housing issues and expand tenants’ capacity to engage in policy advocacy that impacts their housing stability. YUCA’s and Nuestra Casa’s Housing Coordinators work at 62.5% of a FTE. CLSEPA also partially funded new staff attorney positions.
Policy & Advocacy
Leadership
Immediately after the start of COVID19 shelter-in-place orders, CLSEPA emerged as a leader advocating for local policies to protect tenants from eviction during the pandemic.
Their expertise in the technical aspects of evictions and experience administering rental assistance funds allowed them to successfully advocate for COVID-19 eviction
moratoriums at the local and state levels. CLSEPA quickly turned out legal research memos about the legal authority to protect tenants from eviction during a public health crisis and drafted sample ordinance language. They also worked with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County to advocate for the court to stop most eviction activity for several months.
This work protected scores of families from eviction even before the Judicial Council ordered courts across California to stop processing eviction cases.
CLSEPA also brought the local perspective to advocacy
efforts at the state level to stop evictions. They worked with Western Center on Law & Poverty to help the Governor’s
office, and legislative staff better understand the technical aspects of eviction cases and rent debt. This work led to the passage of AB 3088, SB 91, and AB 832, new state laws that protect tenants from eviction who could not pay the rent due to impacts from COVID-19.
YUCA and Nuestra Casa staff members have been also
civically engaged on this issue. YUCA has attended four Rent Board meetings and presented once to the Rent Board on a separate occasion. YUCA staff has also attended 14 City Council meetings to monitor affordable housing policy
discussions, monitor Woodland’s Euclid Improvement
Affordable Housing Strategy, advocate for tenant protections in light of COVID-19, support Valiant Courtyard Tenant
Association with habitability grievances, and to advocate for equitable implementation of SB91. Nuestra Casa staff has also provided public comment at 8 City Council meetings related to the Woodland redevelopment project and our antidisplacement project.
Legal
Workshops/Tenants’
Rights Trainings
CLSEPA has conducted seven legal workshops for over 220 residents and Nuestra Casa and YUCA staff members. The
workshops educated residents about state and local eviction moratoriums enacted during COVID-19, and also covered
topics related to redevelopment plans at Woodland Park.
CLSEPA has also provided six technical assistance trainings to community partners on accumulating COVID rent debt,
state and local eviction moratoriums, converting rent debt to regular civil debt, and land use policy. These training sessions have been critical for staff and Nuestra Casa’s Promotoras because they built their confidence to do
effective, high-touch community outreach. Also, CLSEPA
attorneys provided several consultations with City staff and policymakers about eviction moratoriums and rental
assistance during the pandemic.
Tenant Associations YUCA has helped strengthen the Valiant Courtyard Association at Bay Road, where there have been grievances about rent increases, health and safety issues. YUCA and Nuestra Casa have supported Palo Mobile Estates residents by conducting education and outreach efforts directly relevant to them. YUCA has also presented to Palo Mobile Estates residents twice on rent relief availability. Most recently, YUCA was consulted and extended support to Friends of Palo
Mobile Estates on how to conduct a successful in-person clinic for residents who needed live support on filling out documentation.
Tenant Advisory
Board
The Measure O organizations helped to create the Tenant Advisory Board (TAB), comprised of 9 community members.
A strength of the TAB is that it includes community members familiar with and new to housing advocacy. The Measure O organizations have held 15 training sessions to help
community members strengthen their advocacy, learn how to build their base of supportive renter leaders, and civic engagement skills. There were also an additional 7 meetings of subcommittees of the Tenant Advisory Body that were
more focused, in-depth strategy sessions for conducting outreach and training additional members of our base (“train the trainer”). Today, 7 of the 9 members remain highly
engaged and active in tenant organizing and outreach. TAB leaders wish to reorganize, bring on more tenants, and build a more solidified team for the efforts that are still to come around their housing needs.
Direct Community
Outreach
CLSEPA created know-your-rights materials and tenant
notice forms about local eviction moratoriums during COVID19, distributed through schools and food distribution sites in EPA. CLSEPA also created a bilingual website,
www.YouAreCommunity.org, to educate tenants about their rights and resources during the pandemic.
YUCA and Nuestra Casa staff members combined have
shared over 15,000 outreach materials to residents through Nuestra Casa’s Food Distribution program, Church of Christ, St Francis Church, EHP, and apartment complexes.
Information distributed at various events included: ADU ordinance flyers about the eviction moratorium, MidPen Palo Gardens Affordable Housing flyers and applications, eviction moratorium factsheets, template Declaration of Financial Hardship letters, and information on eligibility and how to apply for the California Rent Relief program. CLSEPA also distributed several thousand packets of bilingual information to EPA residents about the eviction moratorium and the
importance of submitting declarations to landlords if COVID19 has financially impacted tenants.
Nuestra Casa developed a list of tenants behind in rent and did direct canvassing for them. The Promotoras talked with more than 500+ people from this list to ensure they had the information they needed about the eviction moratorium to protect their housing. Nuestra Casa held 25+ outreach
activities and in East Palo Alto via our Food Distribution program and outreach in laundromats, clinics, and local supermarkets.
The Measure O organizations created videos explaining how to protect yourself from eviction during COVID-19. These videos explain the process to activate one’s tenant rights under the eviction moratorium. For example, Nuestra Casa posted its video to our social media accounts and boosted it as an ad. On Facebook, it reached 1,054 people by March 4, 2021 (organic: 295, paid: 788). It reached 115 accounts on Instagram and 81 impressions on Twitter. Nuestra Casa also posted the video to our YouTube channel and website.
Hotline YUCA has maintained a bilingual tenant hotline during the organization's hours of operation. Tenants call with inquiries about rental assistance funds, pro-bono legal support,
eviction support, and more. Tenants also communicate via text message which we have found creates more
accessibility.
YUCA’s tenant registry list started with 180 renters in East Palo Alto. Today YUCA’s tenant registry has grown to 410.
Since starting this work with the Measure O team, YUCA’s registry has grown by 235 people. The vast majority of
renters (over 95%) are from East Palo Alto. These are all residents who YUCA continues to maintain communication
with and support with their housing rights.
Legal Assistance CLSEPA assisted 650 East Palo Alto residents with legal representation or advice, including 234 residents funded by the Measure O contract. CLSEPA also assisted over 530
East Palo Alto residents with emergency rental assistance since the beginning of the Measure O contract.
The Measure O contract helped fund CLSEPA's work to stop an unlawful $75 rent increase that would have been
assessed against about 115 families residing at Palo Mobile Estates, winning the case before East Palo Alto’s Rent
Stabilization Board. CLSEPA also represented Palo Mobile Estates residents in successful advocacy to ensure that immigrant families and low-income residents could benefit from continued low rents after the park was converted.
State’s Rental Relief
Program
Regarding East Palo
Alto’s Rental Relief
Fund applications, to
date, the State
reports:
Number of
applications: 821
Funds requested:
$11,533,561
Households already
served: 367
Average assistance:
$11,712
Funds paid:
$4,345,068
In coordination with the Measure O contract activities, the Rent Stabilization Program:
Emailed SB 91 related information to the Program’s
landlords.
Sent multiple Rental Relief Fund English-Spanish mailers to all the tenants subject to the Rent Stabilization Program.
Coordinated with the City Manager’s Office to provide SB91 Program Relief Fund information in the City’s Weekly
Updates.
Provided landlords and tenants with referrals for technical assistance.
Facilitated efforts for a coordinated response with Samaritan House and Project Sentinel which have also been assisting EPA residents.
Updated the Program’s COVID-19 webpage with information related to the State’s Rental Relief Program.
Also, in collaboration with Woodland Park Communities, City staff held an SB 91 informational session to landlords on April
8. CLSEPA:
Sent text messages to over 1,500 client families (700 in EPA) urging them to apply for SB 91 funds and reassuring that immigration status is irrelevant.
Created bilingual materials about State rent relief for our COVID tenants’ rights website,
www.YouAreCommunity.org/rental-assistance.
Represented 414 East Palo Alto residents facing eviction threats or lawsuits and helped keep 65% of East Palo Alto clients in their homes through legal advocacy, including work funded by the Measure O contract.
Expended $500,000 in rental assistance during the
pandemic, with majority of funds going to East Palo Alto families.
Connected with over 300 families to ensure they could pay the State’s required 25% of rent under the Rental Relief Program.
YUCA:
• Education & Outreach
o Education and training for our peer leaders was
addressed in the sections above
o Outreach was conducted via phone calls and text
messages to our growing tenant registry of 410
renters. Continued phone-banking efforts from our
team has ensured there is follow-up with tenants
and the rapport is maintained
o In-person, high-touch outreach was conducted to
3,000 households on the eastside and westside of
town.
o Educational, easy-to-understand content has also
been circulated on the organization’s Facebook
and Instagram platforms
• Direct, 1-1 support
o Provided 1-1 support to a total of 410 families
▪ Extended peer support to 231 local families
struggling with housing insecurity, looking
for pro-bono legal support, applying to
Samaritan House, needing connection to
food distribution centers, and navigating
other City issues with the building permit
department.
▪ Supported 179 families with applications to
CA Emergency Rent Relief Program. Most
families return or call back 1-4 times for
ongoing support with their application.
Difficult cases require anywhere between 5-
10+ interactions of direct support and followup.
NUESTRA CASA:
April 2020- December 2021:
Outreach at various community sites throughout the City:
11,349 AB 3088, SB91, and AB 832 flyers; 1,300 rental
information resource sheet and postcards for tenants.
Door-to-door outreach: 9,550 AB 3088, SB91, AB 832 flyers; 500+ one-on-one tenant conversations.
Tenant Phone Calls: 942.
Collected ten ant phone numbers for one-on-one follow ups:
150.
Tenant SB91 Applications completed: 338 (305 families from East Palo Alto and 33 families from other parts of the County) Social media impressions: 7,502.
Nuestra Casa’s outreach numbers in this report represent work in the East Palo Alto community. However, Nuestra
Casa also distributed additional information and flyers in other parts of the County such as North Fair Oaks, Redwood City, Central San Mateo, and South San Francisco.