The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a countywide moratorium on most evictions and rent increases for residential or business tenants during the novel coronavirus emergency.
The ordinance, which would be retroactive to March 16, could be extended past June 1 depending on the status of the pandemic.
The board will have a special meeting at 1 p.m. April 21 to approve the ordinance, which will be crafted by the county counsel’s office in the meantime, and to iron out specific details.
The ordinance would prohibit evictions that aren’t tied to a health or safety threat. A key provision requested by Supervisor John Gioia was for a minimum 120 days from the end of the state’s shelter-in-place order
for tenants to pay landlords back rent, since most renters won’t be able to catch up on rent immediately after they go back to work — whenever that may be.
“It’s going to be a hardship on everyone,” Gioia said. “It’s not affecting just one demographic or another.”
San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties, as well as several cities including Oakland, Concord, Pittsburg and Antioch, all have various versions of eviction moratoriums, some specifically citing inability to pay because of COVID-19-related reasons.
Supervisors said Tuesday that a blanket moratorium covering the entire county, including its 19 cities, is more practical and consistent than the “piecemeal, city-by-city approach” under cities’ varying ordinances (or
lack of an ordinance).
The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office had stopped doing evictions spurred by inability to pay rent or mortgage in mid-March, following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order putting a hold on those evictions. But it was clear that some county residents wanted a more comprehensive moratorium.
6 comments
Well, my property management company had no issue putting our rent increase into effect April 1st. despite what’s happening. I was hoping there would be somewhat of a pause or delay, but of course I was just kidding myself. Evictions and rent raises during these times are just a horrible thing to have to deal with on top of everything.
Ellenfan
Maybe you should contact the local agency for this. That’s brutal. There’s so many people about to be homeless cause there’s no jobs you think the management would be glad you would pay anything. Im still working as an essential employee. But im floored by the amount of bull crud i need to deal with even on simple things like cashing my checks. I had a 10 hold put on my pay. And every single credit card i have raised my rates. Ive never missed a payment and have a good credit score. This is going to be a repeat of greedy getting greedy and the masses suffering.
When is the county going to lower our property taxes? Nothing has been said about that.
People losing their homes will be an opportunity for millionaires to buy properties at lower prices which will lead to higher rents and/or higher home prices when those millionaires resale which will make the Bay Area even more expen$ive.
Well what do you know. Edi Birsan’s dream utopian vision come true.
Maybe, but you can’t squeeze blood from a stone… Doesn’t matter if you have a monopoly or not, if you don’t have any customers because everyone’s literally broke.
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