Residents of Fullerton and local community organizations have organized a petition to call on the City Council of Fullerton to immediately pass an ordinance imposing a moratorium on evictions of residents and local small businesses. COVID-19, or coronavirus, cases are rapidly increasing in Orange County, but medical facilities are severely unprepared for a pandemic and test kits are not readily available to all medical workers. Honestly, it is likely that the number is already far higher than just 187 cases in our county. Coronavirus grows exponentially, therefore it is important to keep all non-necessary working people at home to contain it. Rent and mortgage relief are critical to giving people financial support so they do not have to worry about how they will make their payments.

The petition contains the following demands:

1. Impose a moratorium on evictions per the authority given by the Governor of California for renters who will be financially impacted by the coronavirus, or COVID-19, due to missing work, (voluntarily or otherwise), or their businesses not being patronized for the next sixty days or until the COVID-19 crisis has been abated, regardless of immigration status. Landlords must not post notices nor file evictions for non-payment of rent until this crisis has been abated. Once the situation has stabilized, landlords must accept partial payment of rent and agree to make payment arrangements without late fees.

2. Send correspondence to Congressman Gil Cisneros, State Assemblywoman Sharon QuirkSilva, State Senator Ling Ling Chang, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs to publicly state support for federal intervention of the foreclosure process for residential and commercial property owners impacted by the coronavirus for sixty days or until this COVID-19 crisis has been abated, regardless of immigration status. Financial institutions must not post notices for non-payment. They must accept partial payment of mortgage and agree to make payment arrangements without late fees once the situation has stabilized.

3. Impose a moratorium on rent increases for 60 days or until the COVID-19 crisis has been abated.

4. Continue city services and utilities, including water and electricity, and defer fees without interest for the next sixty days or until the COVID-19 crisis has been abated, and agree to make payment arrangements without late fees once the situation has stabilized.

5. Impose a moratorium on parking fees and late payment penalties for past parking violations for sixty days or until the COVID-19 crisis has been abated. Renters and mortgage payers who will be financially impacted by the coronavirus should not have to face this public health crisis while dealing with the stress of an eviction/foreclosure. Even if non-payment is not coronavirus-related, evictions for non-payment of rent directly increase our houseless population, which we expect to be disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus.

At least 15 other cities in California have passed eviction moratoriums, and it’s time for Fullerton and the other Orange County cities to follow suit. Joanne Fawley, Board Trustee for the Fullerton Joint Union High School District has thrown her support behind this petition, along with local activist Jose Trinidad Castaneda. The following local organizations also endorse this petition: Housing is a Human Right-Orange County, People’s Homeless Task Force-Orange County, VietRise, Chicanxs Unidxs de Orange County, AHRI for Justice-OC, and Resilience OC.

Elected leaders must take bold action and call on landlords and financial institutions to honor these requests and take all necessary measures to halt evictions, ideally before they are even filed. Please sign this petition and contact the Fullerton City Council to demand that they take action:

Jennifer Fitzgerald, Mayor At Large, JenniferF@cityoffullerton.com

Jan M. Flory, Mayor Pro Tem, jflory@cityoffullerton.com

Jesus Silva, District 3, jesuss@cityoffullerton.com

Bruce Whitaker, At-Large, bwwhitaker@live.com

Ahmad Zahra, District 5, AhmadZ@cityoffullerton.com

To view the petition, click HERE.