Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and other big cities throughout California are reportedly planning a rent strike, as the coronavirus pandemic has caused unemployment and financial uncertainty in the Golden State to soar.
"There has never been a better time to use what little power we have, which is often your rent check, as a way of demanding that the city and state do right by a majority of its constituents," Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, the LA Tenants Union co-founder, told The Guardian.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already put in place a two-month delay in evictions for any renter effected by the coronavirus pandemic. San Francisco May London Breed has also ordered no-fault evictions to be delayed until June 21.
And city councils in Los Angeles and Oakland have both put forth similar moratoriums.
But community activists in California do not think these delays help enough and instead want bans on evictions and suspensions of rent put in place.
California has one of the highest numbers of unemployment insurance claims, with more than 186,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That has added to the more than 3.3 million people who are out of work throughout the United States.
"There are several individuals across this country that will not be able to financially afford to pay rent and also have food for their families," the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Oakland Director Carroll Fife told The Guardian.
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