City opts to extend freeze on evictions
San Franciscans struggling to pay rent in the pandemic will have another sixmonth reprieve after the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a city eviction moratorium that mirrors the state’s protections.
The ordinance will protect against evictions for nonpayment of rent due to the pandemic for tenants who pay a quarter of their rent. The Board unanimously passed the ordinance on first reading, meaning it will require another vote, but is all but guaranteed to pass. The protections have already been in place as an emergency order for 30 days, but will now be extended until Dec. 31.
The state’s rent protections are set to expire on June 30, although a deal to extend them appears imminent.
While the city’s moratorium will keep many San Franciscans in their homes, it doesn’t eliminate their rent debt. San Franciscans have racked up anywhere between $147 million to $355 million in unpaid rent over the past 15 months because of pandemic unemployment, a city report released Wednesday said.
The report’s release coincided with a hearing on the cityrun rent relief program during the last
week of the Board of Supervisors’ negotiations over San Francisco’s budget. The $13 billion spending plan as proposed by Mayor London Breed doesn’t include any more local dollars for rent relief, but supervisors are debating whether to add more, and if so, how to pay for it. Some supervisors want to use federal funds first and then see where the need lies, while others are determined to fund rent relief.
San Francisco is currently administering $90 million in federal funds for rent relief — not enough to cover all the estimated back rent that’s owed. Since the city’s rent program launched at the end of May, 1,800 households that owe a combined $16 million have applied, a city official said during a hearing Wednesday. Half of those have received notification that they’ve been approved to get funds. The program expects to cover only between 5,000 and 6,000 of the highestneed households based on available funds and greatest need, he said.
Separately, a state relief program covering rent from April 2020 to March 2021 has administered $4 million, out of nearly $50 million requested, according to recently obtained data from The Chronicle.
Supervisor Dean Preston said Wednesday the report confirmed his recent rallying cry that relief would not be enough to cover rent debt when eviction moratoriums lift.
“We know people who were barely making ends meet before the pandemic are in an undeniably precarious situation now,” Preston said. “Thousands of San Franciscans in need will be shut out of rent relief — that’s the path we’re on right now. We have an opportunity, and the resources available, to invest in our city’s future by funding additional rent relief now to prevent displacement and homelessness.”
Preston requested using at least $128 million out of the $200 million in expected revenue from Proposition I, a tax on expensive real estate property transfers, on rent relief and the other half on affordable housing — as was promised in the campaign. Last week, he introduced a budget supplement to take $26.7 million out of the city’s reserves for Prop. I’s purposes, but some of his colleagues seemed hesitant to use reserves due to competing budget priorities.
Breed has opposed allocating Prop. I specifically for those purposes since the money was technically a general tax, meaning that it goes into the general fund and can be used for any city services. Breed said during a Board meeting in April that housing is a “top priority” and funding housing and eviction protection is “imperative” but pointed to relief available. She added: “I don’t agree we should set it aside for brand new programming that hasn’t been fully defined when we have an economic and housing crisis to solve now.”