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In Calgary’s current red-hot real estate market, it can take some extra effort to get noticed.
Nick Davis, 30, and his wife Sarah, 26, decided based on photos alone to put an offer in on a three-bedroom Shawnessy house in March. They knew if they waited a couple of days to get in for a showing, the house on the quiet cul-de-sac with the big southwest-facing yard would already be gone.
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That s not good for a community,” said Agramont-Justiniano. “And that makes trying to overcome the pandemic even harder.
Unless something changes, many of those renters will no longer be protected from eviction come Feb. 1. Losing their homes, as property owners and landlords lose income. Some people in the course of the pandemic have left the area completely, they figured they d never be able to pay the back rent, so they left,” said Sandy Perry, president of the Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County.
But there may be help on the way. The new federal stimulus bill includes $25 billion of rent relief and the city of San Jose is reaching out, too.
The importance of housing stability in improving health outcomes is well understood, but the pandemic increased the visibility of the connection. The looming crisis is so urgent that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took the unprecedented step of issuing an order temporarily halting residential evictions for nonpayment of rent until January 1, 2021, as a measure to help stem the spread of COVID-19.
In these extraordinary times, two California San Jose and Stockton are working to help renters, owners, and people without permanent shelter deal with the pandemic’s outcomes.
“We generally adhere to the typical ‘Ps’ of housing production, preservation, prevention, and protection,” said Max Vargas, senior policy advisor to former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs. “But during the pandemic, protection became our top order.”