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File Number: 20-126 <br />this state of emergency, and in the interests of protecting the public health and welfare, and to <br />help prevent transmission of the coronavirus, it is essential to avoid unnecessary displacement, <br />business closures, and homelessness. Therefore, staff recommends that the City Council adopt <br />an urgency ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium on mobile homeowners, and residential <br />and commercial evictions due to a substantial loss of income resulting from COVID-19. The <br />moratorium would be achieved by reason of the Ordinance providing to a mobile homeowner or <br />tenant a substantive eviction defense if an eviction proceeding (an unlawful detainer) were filed <br />against the mobile homeowner or tenant for non-payment of rent and the mobile homeowner or <br />tenant could demonstrate that the non-payment of rent was due to the mobile homeowner’s or <br />tenant’s substantial loss of income due to COVID-19. <br />As a result of the public health emergency related to COVID-19 and the precautions <br />recommended by health authorities, mobile homeowners and tenants in San Leandro have <br />experienced, or expect soon to experience, sudden and unexpected income loss due to <br />temporarily being unable to report to work because of illness caused by COVID-19 or quarantines <br />related to COVID-19, taking care of family members ill due to COVID-19, the closure of schools <br />and daycare and the need to take care of children at home, taking care of elderly family members <br />who are in quarantine, shelter-in-place or affected by COVID-19, and/or lay-offs due to business <br />slow-downs and closures. Further economic impacts are anticipated, leaving mobile <br />homeowners and tenants vulnerable to eviction during this local emergency. It is essential to <br />avoid unnecessary housing and commercial displacement, to protect the City’s affordable <br />housing stock, to mitigate the economic effects on small and medium sized businesses, and to <br />prevent housed individuals from falling into homelessness. A temporary moratorium on evictions <br />from mobile home spaces, residential, and commercial rental units due to a substantial loss of <br />income because of the COVID-19 pandemic will protect mobile homeowners and tenants from <br />losing their housing and businesses, which will thereby protect the public health, safety and <br />welfare, and prevent transmission of COVID-19. <br />Analysis/Discussion <br />The proposed urgency ordinance would take effect immediately and would apply to all eviction <br />proceedings, such as notices to quit or pay rent or unlawful detainer actions served on or after the <br />effective date of the Ordinance. By providing a substantive eviction defense to a mobile <br />homeowner or tenant, the ordinance would place a temporary moratorium on eviction actions <br />instituted for non-payment of rent where a mobile homeowners or tenant can demonstrate that the <br />mobile homeowner or tenant suffered a substantial loss of income due to the COVID-19 <br />pandemic. Impacts on loss of income include: <br /> <br /> - the need to remain off work due to COVID-19 illness or symptoms <br /> - the need to self-quarantine because of exposure to COVID-19 <br /> - a reduction in the number of work hours <br /> - job loss due to closure of the business that employed the tenant <br /> - the need to care for a child or children whose school is closed <br /> - inability to operate because of the shelter-in-place order affecting a non-essential business <br /> - lack of business due to no customers <br /> <br />The urgency ordinance, if adopted, will act as a deterrent to most landlords initiating eviction <br />Page 2 City of San Leandro Printed on 3/20/2020 <br />6