San Francisco’s moratorium on evictions will last through the end of the year.
The city’s Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to continue protecting tenants, who pay at least a quarter of their rent, through Dec. 31 from evictions for failing to pay rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, the board first voted to extend the protections to September, with the state’s own ordinance set to expire in June. California officials are weighing extending the order, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised the state will pay off all unpaid back rent from the pandemic.
San Francisco is doling out $90 million in federal funds to provide rent relief, but that alone isn’t enough to pay off the rent owed by San Franciscans. The city’s updated ordinance doesn’t eliminate back rent.
A Budget and Legislative Office Analyst’s report last year estimated more than 33,000 households owed as much as $32.7 million per month from April to September of last year.
The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development on Wednesday will conduct a hearing for the board’s three-member Government Audit and Oversight Committee, providing clarity on how the city’s allocating funds in its rent relief program.
Supervisor Dean Preston, a sponsor of the hearing and a member of the committee, wants to use $100 million of the expected revenue from Proposition I to fund rent relief. Mayor London Breed opposes using funding from the proposition – a tax on expensive property sales approved by voters in November – solely on rent relief and affordable housing.
