Extension eyed for eviction moratorium related to COVID
“If we let protections expire overnight and without warning, we’re heading straight off an eviction cliff.” Supervisor Dean Preston
San Francisco tenants who can’t pay their rent because of COVID-related hardship would be protected from eviction for another two months after the city ends its mayoral state of emergency under a new proposal from Supervisor Dean Preston.
Preston was to introduce legislation Tuesday to create a 60-day “winddown period” for eviction protections the city put in place during the pandemic. Currently, San Francisco landlords are not allowed to evict tenants over COVID-related rent debt that accumulates between July 2022 and whenever Mayor London Breed’s pandemic emergency proclamation ends.
Preston’s proposal would extend those protections for another two months after Breed’s proclamation expires. While the city’s public health emergency for COVID ended last month, a separate emergency proclamation from the mayor is still in effect. The city has not said when it will terminate. The federal government’s COVID emergency will end May 11; San Francisco could end its emergency at the same time or continue it to a later date.
If Preston’s legislation passes, San Francisco would not be the only city to extend pandemic protections to tenants. Berkeley’s City Council voted last month to extend its eviction moratorium until the end of August.
“If we let protections expire overnight and without warning, we’re heading straight off an eviction cliff,” Preston said in a statement. “Extending these protections is crucial to making sure we can get remaining funds for rent relief to tenants in need.”
Preston’s office said San Francisco has set aside more than $71 million for pandemic rent relief and has so far helped 6,000 households avoid displacement. But the city still has $24 million left to spend, which could help another 3,000 households, his office said.
Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation and policy at the Eviction Defense Collaborative, said in a statement that the 60-day extension would be a “win win” that would cause “no real detriment to anyone” because unpaid rent could still be collected even if tenants couldn’t be evicted because of it. Ending the eviction protections without time for tenants to adjust would only “exacerbate the City’s underlying homelessness and affordable housing problems,” Prochovnick said.