A COUPLE dealing with cancer treatment and disability has become homeless after they were thrown out of their apartment due to a heartless state law.
Bradford Berger, 56, and his wife were willing and able to pay overdue rent they had fallen behind on, but that didn’t stop their landlord from sending cops to force them onto the streets on Wednesday.
3
3
3
Berger walks with a cane after a workplace accident crushed his spine, while his wife, Kimberly, was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently undergoing treatment.
For 15 years, they have lived at the same subsidized San Francisco apartment, for which they pay $250 per month, Cal Matters reported.
The couple survives off Berger’s $900 disability check, which wasn’t enough to cover their living expenses and rent.
Last year, they fell behind in rent and initiated a payment plan before again falling behind in December.
Their limited income qualified them for assistance through a city program to cover the back rent.
But a California law allows landlords to deny the funds for any reason and initiate eviction proceedings based on any nonpayment.
The Bergers’ landlord, a local nonprofit that contracts with the San Francisco Housing Authority, initiated eviction proceedings this year.
On March 5, eight sheriff’s deputies threw them on the street.
“I would think [the landlord] should be recouping as much money as they can however they can,” Berger told Cal Matters.
“Especially if there’s no other problems and it’s just strictly financial.”
The Bergers’ landlord, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, didn’t immediately respond to the request for comment by The U.S. Sun.
TENANT WOES
Eviction rates in California have spiked in recent months as more landlords reject rental assistance in favor of moving forward with evictions.
The 166,463 eviction notices filed in Los Angeles between February 2023 and November 2024 were overwhelmingly for nonpayment of rent, with many tenants falling behind due to medical issues or job loss.
But evictions have been on the rise since the end of the Covid-19-era protections that temporarily halted them.
How common is eviction in the US?
Millions of households receive an eviction notice each year.
The Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimated that per 100 renting households, about 7.8 evictions were filed each year.
The Eviction Lab tracks filings across 10 states and 36 cities.
In a typical year, landlords file about 3.6 million eviction cases.
Source: The Eviction Lab
For tenants like the Bergers, delays in rental assistance payments have made it nearly impossible to keep up with the rent.
Average processing times for rental help can take up to three months.
With only three business days to respond to an eviction notice, tenants who fall behind find themselves at the mercy of a legal system that often favors landlords.
NEW LAW TO STOP HEARTLESS LAW
The California law that allows landlords to evict tenants for nonpayment, even if they can, has become a major point of contention for tenant advocates.
Jacqueline Patton, a San Francisco eviction defense attorney, said that the rental assistance programs are often delayed, and tenants might face eviction despite being willing and able to pay their rent.
In the face of eviction, tenant advocates are pushing for new legislation to stop landlords from evicting tenants who are willing and able to pay the overdue rent.
The bill, currently in the California Legislature, would require landlords to accept payments up until eviction.
It would also dismiss cases if tenants prove they’ve qualified for rental assistance.
“If you are struggling and able to recoup the funds and pay what you owe, that eviction proceeding should have stopped immediately,” said State Senator Aisha Wahab, who authored the bill.
Patton, who also supports the legislation, said, “It would be so much less posturing – we would just be like, ‘We have the money, here is the money, dismiss your case. Instead of (going) back and forth for three months.”
While landlords can work with tenants who apply for assistance, many prefer to evict rather than accept partial payments.
“Property owners who file a nonpayment eviction may have other reasons to want to evict particular tenants, such as if they are not keeping their unit clean or antagonizing other tenants,” Daniel Bornstein, a San Francisco landlord attorney, told Cal Matters.
But, he added in opposition to the proposed legislation, “There has to be a line in the sand from a public policy standpoint or there never is an end point when the debt has to be paid.”
