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The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors punted Tuesday on a potential extension of the county’s temporary moratorium on evictions for residents affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The county’s moratorium currently ends at the end of the month but allows the board to extend or shorten its duration depending on the state of the pandemic.
The board avoided extending it at Tuesday’s meeting, however, because Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet to extend the suspension of state law that prohibits local moratoriums on evictions for missed rent payments.
Newsom’s executive order, which he signed in mid-March, is set to expire May 31, preventing the county-level governments from extending their own moratoriums later into the summer until he signs a new order to renew the suspension.
The board voted unanimously to move discussion of the extension to its next meeting, at which time they will consider extending the ordinance through Aug. 31.
All five supervisors agreed the pandemic would not allow county residents to return to work under normal circumstances by the time the calendar flips to June.
Several public speakers called on the county to cancel rent entirely during the pandemic, arguing that paying several thousand dollars in back rent will not be feasible for people returning to work in an unknown number of weeks or months.
Supervisor Joe Simitian noted that nationwide data from the National Multifamily Housing Council showed a relatively minor 4.5% drop in tenants paying some or all of their monthly rent in April.
“I think that tells us that if people can (pay their rent), they do,” he said. “But we also know that for some significant number … it’s already gotten tough and it’s going to get tougher in the months ahead.”
Simitian and Supervisor Dave Cortese also said that while the county would face constitutional issues in waiving rent payments wholesale, the board’s Federal Affairs Advocacy Task Force, which Simitian chairs, would discuss advocating for similar federal action at its next meeting, scheduled for early June.
“There’s … been some discussion about whether or not a (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act or extensions thereof at some point might want to take into account some kind of a reimbursement package for landlords so that they could actually appropriate rent abatements,” Cortese said.
The board is now expected to discuss the moratorium extension during its May 26 special meeting, scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
“This is the best way to both signal to the community what our intentions are, I hope, and also to comply with the limitations of the existing order,” Simitian said.
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If they extend the lock down past May 31st there will be nothing to return to . From day one this has been handled with gross negligence from everyone involved.
They are being threatened by landlords with lawsuits.
And being flooded with misinformation that the virus is under control enough to start reopening the county. Which is completely untrue
But it is inevitable that just shy of May 31 it will be extended at least 2 more months. Just look at LA, and also that CSU will not be having in person classes in the fall.
Given the testimony of Dr. Fauci on Tuesday. The Doctors are trying to make sure that we don’t make the situation worse regarding COVID 19.
Unless the County can convince congress to provide extended unemployment insurance with the $600 bonus at least until January 2021.
There can be an argument if that happens to seek an alternative approach, like providing rental assistance, or waiving property taxes temporarily contingent on rent reductions of at least 25% and no evictions.
People have received wages or stimulus money and grants.
Landlords have bills to pay, too.
Robyn, I’d suggest that landlords should save up for a rainy day. If they haven’t budgeted for these types of extreme circumstances, that sounds like poor planning on their behalfs.
However, if they still have bills to pay and not enough money, they can pick up a side hustle to earn some extra money in order to pay those bills. If they have a car, they can start picking up groceries on Instacart or deliver food for restaurants through something like UberEats or GrubHub. In these difficult times, they need to start thinking outside the box!
Landlords No body ever plans for a pandemic
Good point, I don’t think anyone was predicting this pandemic. It seems quite irresponsible for these landlords to not have enough savings in place to cover a few months of missed rent.
As I pointed out above, they can always earn some extra cash by working for some of the new gig economy jobs.
I guess you could also be just as cold-hearted to tenets and suggest, like landlords, they should have been prudent to save up for a rainy day. If they haven’t budgeted for these types of extreme circumstances, that sounds like poor planning on their behalfs.
That might be a reasonable comparison, except for the fact that landlords are running a business. All businesses should be budgeting for unexpected bumps, especially given the last decade of booming real estate in the Bay Area. If they weren’t able to put away money for a rainy day while yielding huge returns on their investments, perhaps they’re not very good businesspeople. Yet another reason for them to pivot to a side hustle!
Granted, the pandemic is the real enemy here.
Unfortunately, the so called “free market” business of Just In Time operations does a great job at maximizing profits, at the exposure of great risk regarding whether demand or supply takes a major plunge.
Which it is with force like no other, there never has been such a unemployment spike in this country ever. Why, because we all do service jobs and practically manufacture nothing here.
This situation is FORCING our market to become more socialist every day because the lack of demand and supply security simply left us wide open. As a CISSP, I was always aware of this possible disaster, I never thought I would live through it.
But climate change made it happen because wildlife migrations has moved significantly, say these bats with COVID 19 to an area that they did not encounter humans to where they ended up today.
Again, I believe that a holistic approach to provide prevention of bankruptcy on all parts is the REQUIRED course of action. The ones that are the most resourced to take the hits are the mortgage services and the banks. Especially if the can get some relief accordingly.
But to try to say that a person should be managing themselves as a business and have resources under these circumstances is simply unrealistic.
WE ALL SHOULD BE WORKING TOGETHER TO GET FEDERAL LEGISLATION TO PROVIDE HOUSING COST RELIEF TO ALL.