A group of Bay Area residents drove by and honked in protest near the residence of assembly member David Chiu. He authored assembly bill 3088. Many protesters called him a communist.
California Assembly Bill (AB) 3088 is known as the Tenant, Homeowner, and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020. It was supposed to provide temporary relief to tenants who are financially distressed during the COVID crisis, but some say it destroys the tenant/landlord relationship throughout California.
“Although AB3088 sounds like it is trying to protect the tenants, but it actually causes a lot of damage to the tenants. It also scares landlords who will stop renting out their places, causing further housing shortages,” said Timothy He of the Bay Area Homeowners Network.
David Chiu co-authored AB15, as a follow-on bill to AB3088. AB15 attempts to extend the protection period that would disallow landlords to evict tenants for non-payment of rent. The period would be up to 22 months from March of this year till the end of 2021. Landlords would have to fight in small claims court to settle the unpaid rent, while they continue to be responsible for property taxes and maintenance cost.
“I think it is horrible. How are they supposed to pay the taxes if they don’t get any rent? Everybody deserves to earn a living, that’s our civil rights. This is against civil rights. How are they supposed to collect from small claims court? There’s a very small limit on small claims court, only $10,000. That’s pocket change, and it really does encourage sloth. It leads to communism because socialism always leads to communism and this is just the first step,” said Erika Hathaway of Reopening California 2021.
Many Chinese-American landlords feel that they elected David Chiu to represent them in the California Assembly, and yet they felt betrayed by his policies.
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