The current San Francisco eviction moratorium will now have a 60-day “wind-down period” beyond the end of the local COVID-19 state of emergency, though it’s still unclear when SF’s state of emergency will actually end.
The various COVID-19 eviction moratoriums in California jurisdictions are in some cases nearing their expiration dates (Alameda County’s ends April 30), and in other cases being extended (Berkeley’s was recently extended until August 31). Two weeks ago, SF Supervisor Dean Preston proposed a 60-day extension of the San Francisco eviction moratorium, saying at the time, “We’ve got to make sure we are not going off an eviction cliff when the local state of emergency ends.”
And on Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors unanimously approved that 60-day eviction moratorium extension, in an 11-0 vote with no debate or discussion.
Tonight, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved my legislation to extend covid nonpayment eviction protections by an additional 60 days beyond the end of the local state of emergency. This will provide crucial protections against displacement.
— Dean Preston (@DeanPreston) March 22, 2023
When Preston introduced the 60-day extension at the March 7 board meeting, he explained that the measure “will create a 60-day wind-down period after the [city's] state of emergency ends, keeping these eviction protections in place, covering an additional two months of rent after the state of emergency ends.”
The thing is, we still don’t know when the SF COVID-19 state of emergency will end. The San Francisco COVID-19 public health emergency declaration ended on February 28, but the mayor’s separate COVID-19 state of emergency declaration from February 25, 2020 remains in effect.
When will that end? The Chronicle has some informed speculation that “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.”
Should Mayor Breed end the emergency declaration on May 11, that would extend the SF eviction moratorium to around July 11.
So the SF eviction moratorium figures to stay in place until at least then. And as a reminder, the moratorium does not just ban evictions, but also says “a landlord may not impose late fees, penalties, interest, liquidated damages, or similar charges due to a tenant’s non-payment of rent, if the tenant can demonstrate that it missed the rent payment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Image: @DeanPreston via Twitter
