Rising rent in SLO County threatens tenants with homelessness while nonprofits search through limited affordable housing 

San Luis Obispo County is experiencing a wave of rent hikes, leaving tenants grappling with potential homelessness and nonprofits scrambling to address those calls for help.

"About 30 percent of our requests are coming from folks who were barely getting by to begin with, and now the rent has been increased," said Devon McQuade, the associate director of 5Cities Homeless Coalition (5CHC).

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• File Photo By Jayson Mellom
• UNLOCKED Devon McQuade of 5Cities Homeless Coalition said that a key element in alleviating homelessness in SLO County is boosting affordable housing options, including projects such as this 20-unit low-income apartment complex for veterans in San Luis Obispo.

According to a rent.com study, the average rent in SLO for a studio apartment is $2,050 as of Nov. 6—a 12 percent increase compared to the same time last year.

Service requests made to 5CHC have been climbing since April. That month, the nonprofit received 29 new applications for services. In July, the number of requests rose to 51. In August, they peaked at 76 requests. McQuade told New Times that 5CHC also received five requests in April for homelessness prevention and assistance, which spiked to 25 in August. In September, the nonprofit fielded 52 service applications, and even though the October report isn't compiled yet, McQuade said the number was high.

"We had 65 new households accessing services and over 30 homeless prevention requests—including five requests that included $6,000 to $10,000 in rental arrears [overdue payment]," she said.

Such service requests went up following the end of the California COVID-19 Rent Relief program. The funding program, designed to help people who were unable to pay portions of their rent or utility bills, started accepting applications in March 2021. Tenants and landlords had an 18-month window to ask for help, but that wrapped up on March 31 this year.

McQuade said that while the relief program helped many families across SLO County and the state, there were problems when the program was active too.

"There was such a high volume of requests, and everything was online ... 5CHC did sign on as a partner with the program to help people with applications," she said. "It just took a really long time to get paid. There just wasn't anything the tenant could do but wait for a determination by the program to see if they were eligible for assistance."

While waiting, some people dropped off and didn't follow through with the application. The families who did finally get assistance got their rent paid off, McQuade said, but were left to deal with the escalating costs of living through paychecks that either remained the same, or in some cases, were depleted.

"What we saw with single-parent households was that mom and dad had to stay home with the kids, and that meant going with a completely different career path," McQuade said. "What this program didn't have was a budgeting and financial literacy and sustainability planning that we do with our clients."

In SLO County, program organizers saw another group of struggling renters also fall through the cracks set up by the eligibility threshold of some resource programs.

"A lot of families are low income but they're not extremely low income. So they may not qualify," McQuade said. "They kind of fall into this in-between gap where they can't afford to live here, but also, they're over-income for some of these assistances."

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's income limits for fiscal year 2022, the average four-person family in SLO County qualifies as "low income" at a ceiling of $87,000. They classify as "very low income" and "extremely low income" at the limits of $54,700 and $32,800, respectively.

5CHC works with a team of partners around the county, like family resource centers and school districts, to help those facing homelessness. If somebody is at risk, McQuade said she encourages them to contact the nonprofit.

"A lot of times what we'll do is work with the landlord. It can be really scary if somebody receives a three-day pay or quit [an eviction notice form]," she said. "But what we tend to find is if they do connect with a local resource for rental assistance and show they're making the effort to figure out what their plan is moving forward ... we make those changes and adjustments."

One of 5CHC's partners is the SLO Legal Assistance Foundation (SLOLAF). Its legal director, Stephanie Barclay, told New Times that the law service group also saw a rising number of assistance requests.

"We're hearing about landlords who are trying to bypass the rent increase limits by adding other fees and not calling it 'rent,'" Barclay said. "Tenants are in a difficult position because a landlord that is determined to raise the rent will do so or will figure out a way to evict the tenant."

She added that the tenant's next option is to try to convince the landlord that the rent increase isn't allowed. A successful negotiation means they only end up paying the legal rent amount.

"But if they can't agree, and the tenant only pays the legal rent, they face possible eviction proceedings for failure to pay, which is an extremely stressful, unpleasant position for a tenant to be in," she said.

SLOLAF helps low-income tenants understand their rights, negotiate with their landlords, and, if necessary, fight unlawful rent increases and evictions. The services are free, available in English and Spanish, and accessible regardless of citizenship status.

In June, SLO County embarked on a five-year plan to reduce its ever-increasing rate of homelessness by 50 percent. SLO County residents can participate in an online survey for community input on the program through Open City Hall up until Nov. 18.

McQuade told New Times that county officials have directed a lot of money and time into the plan. But she said the key element in alleviating homelessness is affordable housing. For 5CHC, the goal is to prevent homelessness in the first place, but rising rents and the absence of affordable housing are proving to be stumbling blocks.

"We work a lot with [SLOLAF] and it's a two-way referral street, but we know that families are getting missed here," McQuade said. "We're seeing a huge increase right now, and we have concerns that we're going to see a bigger population of individuals and families becoming homeless because of these rising rents and because they may not have been able to access assistance in time." Δ

Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at [email protected].

FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM