Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 1157 into law, which requires multifamily landlords to offer residents the option of having rental payments reported to a major credit reporting agency. The bill goes into effect July 1, 2021, and it will apply to rental housing developments with five or more units that receive certain types of government assistance.

Rainbow Housing Assistance Corporation, a nonprofit affordable housing organization, partners with Esusu’s rent reporting platform to send rental payment data to credit bureaus. This allows tenants to build and improve credit scores.

“SB 1157 offers a credit-building lifeline to tenants who want to safely build and improve their credit scores. It makes those all-important milestones to financial freedom more attainable,” says Justin M. Walker, Rainbow’s national director of business development and media.