Receive update on potential impacts due to lapse of State and Federal COVID eviction protections. (No general fund impact) (Sullivan)

Receive update on potential impacts due to lapse of State and Federal COVID eviction protections.

The impact to local renters due to lapse in State and Federal COVID eviction protections has been a chief concern in Yolo County. HHSA has attempted to compile information that could quantify this impact in the county. Unfortunately, this data is not currently centrally collected. HHSA staff have worked with partners in the eviction prevention space including Legal Services of Northern California, Yolo County Children’s Alliance, EmpowerYolo, and CalWORKs to assess whether we are seeing indicators of need countywide, and the limited data we have seems to indicate that there is a growing need due around evictions. Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) is one of the primary recipients of eviction support, and their while data does not capture all of the county evictions, LSNC has reported that a 57% increase in 3-day pay or quit notices had occurred post-COVID eviction protections. CalWORKS also has an eviction prevention component for local low-income families, and over the last calendar year we have seen significant increases in eviction support for local families including as much as 300% increases in some months. Community Services Block Grant funding has made up a significant portion of the total spent toward local eviction preventions, and we have seen an increase in total funding spent toward eviction preventions in recent years. Finally, Yolo 211 indicates that 41% of calls received from June 2022 to December 2022 we concerned about housing, and housing was the most common concern among callers in most of the incorporated cities. Thus, while concrete data on the impact of the lapse in State and Federal COVID eviction preventions is difficult to quantify, many local indicators point toward an increase in need. Despite this, current resources to address this need remain limited.