They paid rent through COVID-19. Now they’re broke and can’t get help from California programs
Juana Iris Meza and her husband have always lived paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make the $535 rent for the one-bedroom apartment they share with their four kids in central Fresno. But they never missed a payment.
Paying the rent became even more difficult in late January, after her husband and other farmworkers were forced to quarantine for nearly two months following a COVID-19 outbreak at their workplace. Without his income for six weeks, Meza’s family of six relied on a patchwork of savings, friends and family support to pay their monthly housing bill until her husband could go back to work.
But keeping up with the rent came with a cost of its own. Because Meza and her husband never fell behind, they didn’t qualify for the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance program. Tenants must have missed payments between April 2020 and March 2021 to qualify.
“One of the requirements of this program is to have back rent,” Meza said in Spanish. “For that reason, we didn’t apply for this assistance. We don’t have back rent. Most of us try to pay our rent on time, because if we don’t pay the rent, we’ll be kicked out.”
Immigrants in California were financially devastated by the pandemic, but have largely been excluded from government assistance like unemployment and federal stimulus checks. But even when undocumented people like Meza qualify for forms of financial support such as rent relief, many don’t access the aid.
It is unclear how many undocumented residents in Fresno have benefited from the city’s rental assistance program, which allows the city to reimburse up to 100% of a tenant’s unpaid rent to a landlord. The tenant must provide documentation showing income verification, a rental agreement and a rental bill or statement in order to qualify.
The city has distributed about $3.7 million of the $35 million pot — or about 10% of its funds — as of July 12, according to a recent city report provided to The Bee. The same report shows the city has received 8,675 applications to cover unpaid rent, though just 17.4% have been approved since the program’s launch.
The city of Fresno said it does not track the number of applicants who applied for the program with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number or if those applicants qualified for the aid. The Internal Revenue Service processing number is designated for undocumented residents who don’t qualify to receive Social Security numbers.
But experts and advocates say the program, while well-intentioned, doesn’t meet the needs of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Advocates say many immigrants don’t want to risk falling behind on their rent, even if it means they won’t qualify for rental assistance. It’s a common occurrence that they attribute to the undocumented community’s fears over immigration status and maintaining stable housing in an increasingly unaffordable city.
Many of the undocumented families that prioritize rent above all else also live in multi-generational households, have non-traditional housing agreements and participate in the cash economy. To pay off their monthly rent, they accrue higher utility and Internet bills.
“When it comes to undocumented folks, they have very little recourse because there’s just so much fear of what could happen to them or to members of their household,” said Amber R. Crowell, a professor of sociology at California State University, Fresno.
Undocumented tenants struggle to pay rent during pandemic
In order to pay the rent each month, Meza and her husband had to cut back on vital expenses. They fell behind on gas, electricity and water bills and could barely afford food. They racked up a large amount of debt and put off paying for food and medical care.
But Meza insisted on making her payments. She didn’t want to jeopardize their current rental agreement. She worried they wouldn’t be able to find a new apartment that was both affordable and large enough for the entire family. With no income coming in, she wasn’t sure if a rental company in Fresno would accept them.
Maintaining her current home was especially critical, she said, because their immigration status could make it harder for them to acquire a new rental unit. She doesn’t have a government-issued identification card, credit history, social security number, or other documentation that many rental companies in Fresno ask for, she said. With limited options, she feared they’d be pushed out into the street.
During the most difficult months, Meza’s stress took an emotional and physical toll. She hardly slept and when she did, she was tormented from nightmares of getting evicted and having nowhere to go.
She worried endlessly about finances and was frustrated that her family of six was stuck sleeping in a single bedroom. She worried her children would notice how depressed she was. She gained more than 30 pounds in the past year and regularly broke out in hives and warts from the stress.
“I feel like I have no way out because I don’t have the budget to pay a very high rent either,” she said in Spanish. “We don’t have many options or rights because we don’t have legal status.”
Benita Vásquez, 35, is an undocumented mother of three who lost her job as a housekeeper in Fresno during the pandemic. Like Meza, she prioritized paying her rent to avoid an eviction notice. She said her family doesn’t rely on food stamps or other public assistance to get by, fearing the information they provide to the government could one day be used against them.
Instead, they used up their savings and borrowed money from family and friends in order to make rent.
“I always like to have a little money saved,” she said in Spanish. “But during the pandemic, we had to use it all. It wasn’t a lot, but we didn’t get any help and the bills piled up.”
Alexandra Alvarado, a community organizer with the Fresno-based nonprofit Faith in the Valley, works directly with mixed-status families that have suffered financially due to the pandemic. Many continue to face displacement or are forced to take drastic measures to keep their housing, she said.
Alvarado said several of the families she works with have borrowed money from family, friends and lenders or sold their personal belongings like clothes, furniture and household items to make ends meet. Some also withheld paying expenses like medicine, food or their children’s school supplies to get by.
Still, they don’t seek help or government assistance, even when they qualify, because they fear doing so could jeopardize their status in the country, she said. Alvarado also points to the Trump Administration’s “public charge” rule as a clear reason why many immigrants continue to feel uneasy about using public programs. The now-rescinded law allowed the federal government to deny legal status to immigrants who used one or more public benefits for more than 12 months within a 36-month period.
“It’s been incredibly frustrating for them because, universally, they feel like they don’t have a voice,” she said. A lot of families don’t seek public aid either because they are undocumented or they don’t want to share their personal information for cultural reasons, she explained. “A lot of this is probably based on a fear that this opportunity and this money will be used against them later on.”
Expert: Fresno rent relief program should be “proactive”
Meza said she was frustrated to learn that she didn’t qualify for the city’s rental assistance program because she hadn’t accrued any back rent.
Crowell of Fresno State said that while the program has good intentions, current state and federal guidelines prevent the neediest residents from receiving the aid. She said the program as it currently functions is “problematic” because it doesn’t help those who have been making their payments but are just barely scraping by.
“People are going to pay their rent first and that actually cuts them off from getting financial assistance for rent,” Crowell said. “The solution is clear — the rental assistance fund should be proactive rather than reactive. Any financial distress should be a qualification to get those funds, it shouldn’t be missed rent payments.”
Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias agrees with this approach, adding that the federal and state requirements of the existing program should change to reflect the needs of the undocumented community. Current restrictions do not factor in the challenges that the immigrant communities of the Central Valley experience, he said.
“The federal and state guidelines have systematically put essential workers, immigrants and undocumented residents in the back of the line for any financial relief,” he said.
Arias said the state and federal governments should relax restrictions on how local jurisdictions can use the rental relief funds. With more flexibility, he said the city could directly pay off residents’ unpaid utility bills, as well as water, sewer and garbage fees, without having to individually screen each resident for eligibility.
Families with children eligible for free or reduced lunch, or those who receive food stamps, should immediately be granted rent relief, he added.
Local leaders are in discussions with state officials about the need for greater flexibility in how the city distributes funds allocated for rent relief, Arias said. The city would need approval from the state to alter the program, he said, since it is funded through state and federal dollars.
Without changes to the program, he said it’s unlikely that the city will be able to distribute the remaining funds. The city has until September 30 to distribute the funds.
“If we simply wipe out people’s outstanding debt in areas like public utilities, it would be a much more efficient and secure way to... reach the intended outcome of the federal relief program,” he said. “We’re reaching the stage of the emergency order expiring and collections will restart for a lot of our residents that we know were financially impacted by the pandemic.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.