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Palo Alto plans to undertake on Monday an emergency moratorium on residential evictions — a transfer that metropolis leaders hope will assist residents who’ve been laid off and are struggling to pay hire because of the coronavirus disaster.
With the moratorium, the Metropolis Council is seeking to observe the lead of San Jose and San Francisco, every of which has not too long ago prohibited residential evictions. San Francisco Mayor London Breed additionally had introduced on Tuesday a moratorium on evictions for small- and medium-sized business tenants, a measure that San Jose can also be making ready to undertake.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has already signed an govt order stating that native legal guidelines to ban eviction of residential and business tenants resulting from nonpayment of hire associated to COVID-19 is not going to be pre-empted by state regulation over the course of the emergency.
Whereas Palo Alto’s urgency ordinance pertains solely to residential evictions, a report from the workplace of Metropolis Lawyer Molly Stump, asks the council to contemplate following the leads of San Francisco and San Jose and doubtlessly adopting a ban on business evictions.
The report from Stump’s workplace cited the substantial financial injury that the coronavirus disaster is inflicting to town and the area. As companies shut or scale back hours to adjust to orders from public-health officers, employees will “undergo important wage loss resulting from layoffs or decreased work hours,” the report states. Others will lose revenue both as a result of they’re sick with COVID-19, are caring for somebody who’s sick, are self-quarantining or are caring for kids as faculties are closed.
“Many tenants have skilled sudden revenue loss, and extra extreme revenue impacts are anticipated within the coming weeks. The lack of wages attributable to the consequences of COVID-19 could impression tenants’ capability to pay hire, leaving them susceptible to eviction,” the report states.
• Discuss to us: In case you are somebody who would profit from this eviction moratorium, we would like to listen to from you. E-mail [email protected]
Housing activists and tenant advocates have urged town to maneuver forward with the moratorium on evictions. Mitch Mankin, coverage and advocacy affiliate at [email protected], a nonprofit that helps reasonably priced housing, urged the council to take motion to guard town’s most susceptible residents.
“We all know that everybody is being impacted by this public well being disaster and that essentially the most susceptible members of our group, particularly those that are housing insecure or experiencing homelessness, are being hit the toughest,” Mankin wrote.
Annette Kirkham, senior lawyer at Regulation Basis of Silicon Valley, offered a draft ordinance for the council to undertake and argued in a letter that town ought to instantly transfer forward with an urgency regulation prohibiting landlords from submitting nonpayment-of-rent evictions by the period of the COVID-19 disaster.
The letter, which Kirkham wrote on behalf of her group in addition to Sacred Coronary heart Group Service and Inexpensive Housing Community of Santa Clara County, additionally urges town to not carry out any “homeless encampment sweeps and abatements” throughout this time.
“We’re in an unprecedented public well being disaster, and people who are low-income, and are already extremely rent-burdened are most in danger throughout this disaster,” Kirkham wrote. “There are various alternative ways renters’ incomes will possible be impacted, together with sickness, sickness of a member of the family, work closures resulting from misplaced clients or governmental restrictions on public actions, absences from work resulting from college closures, and misplaced shoppers or work for individuals who are self-employed or work within the ‘gig’ economic system for firms similar to Uber or Doordash.”
Palo Alto resident Annette Isaacson made an identical plea.
“Many home cleaners in Palo Alto are being laid off because of the coronavirus, and they’re simply the tip of the iceberg,” Isaacson wrote. “Many of us have lower than $400 in financial savings. They won’t be able to pay their hire.”
Below the proposed ordinance that the council will contemplate Monday, the moratorium would stay in impact at some stage in the native public well being emergency proclaimed by the county. Whereas the March 16 order is about to run out on April 7, Newsom had indicated not too long ago that the public-health emergency will possible stretch for months.
To qualify for the ordinance’s protections, tenants could be required to doc the revenue losses they’ve suffered due to COVID-19 and supply them to their landlords. Tenants additionally could be accountable for cost of hire as soon as they’re able to pay or after the tip of the general public well being emergency.
The ordinance additionally offers residents 120 days from the tip of the state of emergency to make full cost of the again hire, in keeping with the reviews.
Discover complete protection on the Midpeninsula’s response to the brand new coronavirus by Palo Alto On-line, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac right here.
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