Where are tenants falling through the cracks of California's eviction ban?
Jovana Morales, a policy advocate with Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability in Fresno, attributed the high rates of evictions to low representation of tenants in courts  the only real way to use the defenses laid out by the state protections. She said most Central Valley counties have one, maybe two organizations providing legal aid, which have been stretched paper thin during the pandemic. "Everyone knows there is no one to help them," she said. Brandi Snow, lead housing attorney for Central California Legal Services in Fresno, said her organization represents a minuscule fraction of eviction cases in the region, but was able to persuade lawyers for landlords to dismiss several cases. In one, she said, a woman received a three-day notice for a lease violation because her dog, which had lived there for years, was suddenly deemed "too big for the unit"  after she fell behind on rent. "We have the ability to look at all the text messages. We can prove it's actually a retaliation. But what about the people who don't come to us?" she asked.