ATTACHMENT 4 - Laserfiche WebLink

8/9/23, 3:41 PM Fair and Secure Housing Project https://www.zoomgrants.com/rapp2.asp?rfpid=3776&propid=380588&dtype=official&ftype=&f=8/10 displacement by providing legal services spanning the entire continuum of homelessness prevention and anti-displacement interventions. This project is especially critical in preventing homelessness in light of the impending end of the County eviction moratorium. This project will be critical in helping Pleasanton tenants remain housed. Report 2 Our project directly addresses the critical human service need under “Homelessness in the Tri-Valley”’ by providing homelessness prevention services in the form of: 1) assisting families near eviction, including representing them in eviction proceedings; and 2) educating tenants on their rights, so that they can avoid displacement and homelessness, and instead maintain their housing. Centro Legal fields hundreds of calls and emails per week from Alameda County tenants who cannot pay their rent and/or otherwise fear eviction. Families are preemptively moving into their cars because they cannot pay rent and are unaware of their protections. Tenants are also being harassed out of their homes. This project is designed to strategically target low-income tenants most at risk of displacement. Research shows that low- income residents who have the right to stay in their homes need legal representation in order to make that right a reality. As Professor Desmond noted in his book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), “A program that ran from 2005-2008 in the South Bronx provided more than 1,300 families with legal assistance and prevented eviction in 86% of cases.” In addition, preservation of an affordable tenancy for a low-income resident saves public spending on the production of more affordable housing and homelessness services (Flaming, Daniel John and Toros, Halil and Burns, Patrick. 2015). Additionally, our project empowers low-income tenants with knowledge about their legal rights so that they push back against unlawful eviction efforts and remain housed. This project expands access to low-income tenants at risk of displacement by providing legal services spanning the entire continuum of homelessness prevention and anti-displacement interventions. This project is especially critical in preventing homelessness in light of the end of the County eviction moratorium. This project will be critical in helping Pleasanton tenants remain housed. 14. Describe how the project/program is addressing the "Strategic Goals" and "Priority Needs" identified in the "City of Pleasanton U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) FY 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan". Report 1 Our project addresses two Strategic Goals: 1) Reduce housing discrimination through provision of fair housing and landlord/tenant services; 2) Funding and supporting homeless services programs to end homelessness. It also addresses one of the HUD Priority Needs: 1) Support housing needs, including increasing home ownership opportunities, creating and preserving affordable rental and homeownership housing, and reducing housing discrimination. Our tenant legal services directly support low-income Pleasanton tenants dealing with housing discrimination. We provide fair housing and landlord/tenant services to low-income tenants on a variety of issues that involve a risk of displacement. Additionally, our services focus on anti-displacement and homelessness prevention, and therefore aligns very well with the second HUD Strategic Goal. One example that highlights how this program addresses these goals is a case where we represented a Pleasanton tenant during the last Fiscal Year. In that case, a Pleasanton tenant was being evicted due to the alleged actions of her child, whose actions were due to the child’s significant mental health disability. This tenant faced discrimination by her landlord due to the actions of her child, and Centro fought back, asserting the need for the landlord to reasonably accommodate the child’s disability, as well as the tenant’s. Centro was able to help the tenant preserve her subsidized housing unit through our representation, thereby preserving an affordable housing unit and addressing housing discrimination. For the HUD Priority Needs, our project supports low-income Pleasanton tenants with legal housing issues, which includes