In summary

What will California do to help renters and landlords?

Please subscribe to the Gimme Shelter podcast on Apple PodcastsStitcherSoundcloud, Google Play, Spotify or Overcast.

With the state’s economy in pandemic-induced freefall, missed rent payments are piling up for California tenants and landlords. While no one knows exactly how much California renters are falling short each month, the need for emergency assistance is potentially massive — think billions, not millions.

Tenant groups are organizing rent strikes, demanding Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers cancel rents and mortgages while shelter in place orders are still in effect. Landlords are pleading with the state and federal government for dollars as their monthly mortgage payments come due.

On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, CalMatters’ Matt Levin and the Los Angeles Times’ Liam Dillon chat with Patricia Mendoza, an Imperial Beach mother who lost her job and has not paid rent the past two months, and Evelyn Garcia, whose family owns a rent-controlled apartment complex in South L.A.

We want to hear from you

Want to submit a guest commentary or reaction to an article we wrote? You can find our submission guidelines here. Please contact CalMatters with any commentary questions: commentary@calmatters.org

Matt Levin was the data and housing dude for CalMatters. His work entails distilling complex policy topics into easily digestible charts and graphs, finding and writing original stories from data, yelling...