13A ACTION - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

File Number: 23-266 incorporated cities like San Leandro. Additional services provided by the City are available to tenants facing eviction. The City has contracted annually with the nonprofit Centro Legal de la Raza since July 2020 to administer the City’s Tenant-Landlord Counseling Program, which includes legal services for low-income renter households. Centro Legal subcontracts annually with ECHO Housing, a non-profit organization, to administer Tenant-Landlord Counseling, while Centro Legal administers legal consultation and services. Environmental Review The proposed Ordinance is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) under Section 15061(b)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the action may have a significant effect on the environment. Legal Analysis The February 14 staff report for the introduction of Ordinance No. 2023-001 contains a detailed legal analysis of the City’s eviction moratorium. While no Council legislative action can be completely immune from legal challenge, based on the Northern District’s recent decision in Williams v. Alameda County (N.D. Cal., Nov. 22, 2022) 2022 WL 17169833 (Williams), where plaintiffs contested Alameda County’s and the City of Oakland’s eviction moratoria, both of which extend past the expiration of the Governor’s state of emergency, the City has strong arguments that its extension of the eviction moratorium will withstand a facial challenge. The existing eviction moratorium does not violate State law because it is temporary in nature, it does not relieve tenants of their contractual obligations to pay back rent, eviction restrictions are limited to non-payment of rent, the ordinance’s protections apply to tenants only, and it includes exceptions allowing a landlord to leave the rental business (i.e. exercising an Ellis Act eviction). The eviction moratorium similarly does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s Contracts Clause because the elimination of the eviction remedy does not extinguish landlords’ contractual rights such that tenants may be evicted for breach of contract. It does not violate due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment because landlords are not denied a hearing or prevented from litigation; the ordinance allows tenants to raise a defense in an eviction proceeding. By ending the eviction moratorium effective July 31, 2023, the City will strengthen the argument that the eviction moratorium was temporary in nature, designed to address specific public welfare concerns, and terminated as soon as circumstances warranted. ATTACHMENT Page 3 City of San Leandro Printed on 5/31/2023