Amid growing concerns over the potential economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak on Silicon Valley businesses and residents, San Jose city leaders are moving forward with a temporary moratorium on the evictions of tenants facing significant financial burdens due to the global pandemic.
The moratorium, which is expected to receive final approval from the San Jose City Council in the next week or two, will be in effect for at least 30 days and protect residents who can document that they cannot pay rent due to a substantial loss of income related to the virus. The city will evaluate extending the eviction moratorium in a month after it goes into effect.
The council Tuesday night directed staff to draft the moratorium in the wake of the growing number of canceled events around the Bay and just a day after Santa Clara County issued a mandatory ban of large gatherings and organizations.
“I am very mindful that this is going to be a source of pain for some property owners,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “But I think it’s important for us to recognize that this pain is going to be broadly felt and we have to do everything in our power to try and soften the blow.”
Liccardo stressed that the moratorium would not relieve tenants of their obligation to pay rent but rather giving them the opportunity to stay housed while they became financially stable again.
The council will take a separate vote to enact the ban at one of their meetings in the next two weeks.
To qualify for coverage under the moratorium, residents must provide the city with documentation such as pay stubs, time cards, proof of medical care or quarantine, notes from employers and letters from schools citing the virus as why they kept students at home, creating a need for childcare.
The council members will consider adding small businesses under commercial leases to the eviction moratorium at their meeting next week. They will also consider setting aside a pool of additional public funds for San Jose renters and small businesses to access if needed to meet their rent payments.
More than a dozen landlords spoke out against or wrote the city council letters in opposition to the proposed moratorium, citing concerns over how many of them will pay their mortgages if their tenants don’t pay rent.
John Fiebich, the owner of a single rental unit in San Jose, said in a letter that he was “shocked and disturbed” to hear that the council was mandating landlords to “shoulder the entire financial burden of a tenant that can not or will not pay the rent because of some loose connection to Covid-19.”
“This incredible responsibility incumbent on a single individual without notice or consent, having to shoulder the burden for one-third of the year before starting the lengthy and costly process for the possibility of future returns is too much to demand,” Fiebich wrote.
Yet, housing advocates commended the city for what they saw as a proactive approach to an escalating crisis.
Poncho Guevara, executive director of Sacred Heart Community Services, thanked the council for taking an important step toward protecting the city’s most vulnerable residents during a time that could only exacerbate the region’s homeless crisis.
“No one wants to not pay rent, no one wants to be sent home to care for a sick loved one or not be able to go to work but this crisis is outside of their control,” Guevara told the council. “This should aspire us to think higher, deeper and take extraordinary measures, and doing something like this is really critical.”
As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Santa Clara County had grown to 45 — the highest number of any county in the state.
A Santa Clara County resident with a confirmed case of coronavirus died on Monday morning, becoming the second virus-related death in California.
The resident was a woman in her 60s with chronic health conditions and had been hospitalized for a respiratory illness for several weeks before she died at Mountain View’s El Camino Hospital, according to a news release from the county’s public health department.
Later that evening, county officials announced a mandatory ban on all large gatherings with more than 1,000 attendees starting at midnight on Wednesday and spanning at least three weeks.
The county’s ban marked the most sweeping preventive measure taken so far in California — and nearly across nearly the entire country.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and police departments throughout the county will enforce the ban. Violators will face up to a fine of up $1,000, up to six months in jails or both, according to County Counsel Williams.
Liccardo told this new organization in an interview Tuesday that he was not sure how much economic impact the ban would have on the city overall.
“Right now we’re focused on putting out the fires,” he said.
San Jose is not the only city in the Bay Area considering protections for renters and business owners.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Tuesday that the city is considering a similar moratorium on the evictions of renters, as well as new measures to the city’s small businesses and low-wage earners.
Breed said the city is considering everything from tax extensions to low-interest loans to penalty and credit relief for the city’s small businesses.
“We need to support our small businesses, and the workers they employ, during this uncertainty,” Breed said in a tweet Tuesday afternoon. “…This is a time when we all must work together. I am committed to working with anyone who has ideas on addressing the impacts San Francisco is facing.”
