Council OKs ban on evictions
Emergency: Residents who defy shelter-in-place can be cited
Eureka City Council on Monday unanimously approved an ordinance that will prevent tenants from being evicted if they don’t pay rent because of money lost during the coronavirus.
The council’s vote comes days after Gov. Gavin Newsom, by executive order, halted evictions statewide through the end of May.
Residents will be allowed to miss rent payments until then (a date that could later be extended) and then take an additional 180 days to pay back their accumulated unpaid rent.
“Further, a landlord may not charge or collect a late fee for a Delayed Payments defined in this ordinance,” the council’s resolution states.
Council members also voted unanimously to declare a local emergency, which will open up extra local funding to address the coronavirus pandemic.
A global outbreak of the virus has prompted California to shutter non-essential businesses, which has cut jobs and left residents uncertain about how they will afford rent.
At Monday’s meeting, Councilmember Natalie Arroyo said she had heard from residents who say they won’t be able to pay built-up unpaid rent, and who requested that the city enact a rent stoppage.
To the best of her knowledge, Arroyo said, the city doesn’t have the power to do that.
Meanwhile, Councilmember Heidi Messner pushed for the city to consider halting evictions for businesses.
She also suggested the ordinance halt evictions only for residents who can’t pay rent because of the coronavirus, and adopt a verification process.
“There’s no backup for people who think, ‘Oh, I just lost my job this month so that’s going to take care of the last couple of months when I wasn’t paying rent,’ ” Messner said.
Councilmember Kim Bergel asked that the council address policies for the city’s homeless population during the crisis.
“I have serious concerns about that — I know people are going to work very hard to move this forward, but it’s hard to shelter in place when you don’t have a place,” Bergel said. “This is one of our most vulnerable populations.”
At the advice of the city’s attorney, the council decided to pass Monday’s ordinance in anticipation that an upcoming “cleanup bill” will fill some of the gaps in language.
The council also adopted a local urgency order that will allow city officials and Eureka police to cite people who break the existing shelter-in-place order, which mandates people stay at home and not convene with people other than those who live with them.
“Issuance of citations for non-compliance is a tool of last resort. Officers will make ev
ery effort to obtain voluntary compliance by issuing consecutive verbal and written warnings before issuing a citation,” the city’s agenda summary reads.
The city will set up an email address where businesses can reach out to see if they are deemed essential during the order. Brian Gerving, the Public Works director, said he will confer with city staff in those situations to assess whether a business can remain open.
“I’m sure there will be a time when we just disagree, and that’s the point when we stress to them the importance of complying with the order,” Gerving said.
Messner noted that she has heard from at least one email from a Eureka business asked to close down during the order. The business “has been extremely compliant w/ how they follow the safety measures,” she said.
Messner wasn’t immediately available after the meeting to clarify the name of the business.
“I recognize that it’s difficult for these businesses to have to deal with these closures or these constraints on their operations,” Gerving said.
“It will ultimately, though, behoove everybody, for as many people as possible, to comply with this order as strictly as they can, because that will shorten the duration of those impacts,” he added.