Amid the coronavirus pandemic, some say renters are now at risk of being wrongfully evicted.
A local legal aid foundation in Santa Barbara County wants to help residents who are unable to pay rent due to the ongoing pandemic by providing free legal assistance.
Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County is a non-profit law firm that is able to provide free legal help to low-income residents.
They say their goal is to ensure equal access to justice to those who need it.
Tanya Villegas, a managing attorney at the firm, says the pandemic has prompted them to create a resource page to help people during these times.
There, you can find general questions and answers about wrongful evictions which she says is something that has been happening more often.
"So if someone is telling you this is the way it is and maybe it's the management company or it's the landlord and you figure they've gone through this many times they probably know what they're saying, you can be missing out on a lot of things," Villegas said.
She says there are a lot of different factors that play into this type of situation but their main goal is to get out as much information as possible so residents can avoid being wrongfully evicted.
As of right now, an emergency order that halted evictions in California related to the pandemic could end as soon as August 14, but according to legal officials, the only way a landlord can legally evict a tenant is with a court order.
