The agriculture industry this week won only minor concessions from the sponsors of a bill that intends to grant farmworkers some of the same labor protections available to non-farmworkers. After a debate stretching more than five hours Friday, the House gave Senate Bill 87 preliminary approval.
SB 87 has been the biggest challenge for the industry, already struggling to recover from the pandemic and the Trump trade war, in the 2021 session, opponents said.
The bill grants farmworkers the right to join labor unions, engage in collective bargaining and strike. It removes the longtime exemption for farmworkers in the stateâs Labor Peace Act.
Deborah Chadwick, 62, shares a photo of her and her family on her phone taken in 2007 inside her the room she rents at the Amarillo Motel on Thursday
. Chadwick lost her son Doug to suicide in 2013 when he was 26-years-old. Doug is pictured in the far left corner of the photo on her phone. She now faces impending eviction from the motel that’s been her and her disabled daughter’s home since the fall of 2018.
PHOTOS Chancey Bush, The Gazette
The Colorado Apartment Association has also been raising funds to assist tenants who fall behind on rent. Renters can apply for that help through the Resident Relief Foundation.
What can landlords do?
Landlords and other property owners may be able to seek forbearance from their mortgage lender. If the lender agrees, the landlord can delay their monthly mortgage payments. For federally backed loans including those affiliated with the VA, USDA and HUD the deadline to apply is June 30. There is no current deadline to ask for forbearance on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Here’s how to tell if your loan is federally backed.
In Colorado, 32.3 percent of Colorado adults down from 46.5 percent in late March are living in households that are not current on their rent or mortgage payments and where eviction or foreclosure in the next two months is either very likely or somewhat likely, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Eviction filings have been steadily increasing since Colorado’s statewide eviction moratorium expired on New Year s Day. So far this year, 6,124 evictions have been filed across the state. That number does not include evictions filed in Denver County, as that data is compiled separately. Some tenants are still protected under the federal eviction moratorium, which is set to expire at the end of June.