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Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order extending authorization for local governments to halt evictions for renters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, through July 28.
The order also addresses a variety of issues in response to the pandemic, by extending the waiver permitting the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow for mail-in renewals of driver’s licenses and identification cards and waiving certain programmatic and administrative requirements that restrict child care and afterschool programs from serving children of essential infrastructure workers.
The executive order signed in March prohibited the execution of eviction orders for tenants affected by COVID-19 until May 31, 2020. The order prohibited landlords from evicting tenants for non-payment of rent and prohibits the execution of evictions by the police or the courts. It also requires tenants to state in writing, no more than seven days after the rent is due, that the tenant cannot pay all or part of their rent due to COVID-19.
The order includes provisions requiring the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to waive certain regulations governing administration of Emergency Services Grant funding received under the CARES Act, develop alternative streamlined procedures, and implement reasonable accommodations for HCD-funded projects that have been negatively affected by the pandemic, to help ensure project feasibility. The order also suspends statutory set-asides for economic development and housing for Community Development Block Grant program funding received under the CARES Act.
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors recently extended the eviction moratorium for people that have been affected by COVID-19.
The local ordinance offers protections to tenants in the unincorporated area of the County of Imperial by prohibiting the eviction of any tenant who can demonstrate that they have received a notice of eviction for failure to pay rent and that such failure is related to a substantial loss of income and because of medical expenses.
The ordinance provides a grace period for tenants to pay any past-due rent. It prohibits landlords from charging late penalties against any amount of rent owned during the term of the ordinance.
While the ordinance provides protections against evictions, it does not relieve a tenant of the obligations to pay rent, nor does it restrict the landlord’s ability to recover rent due.
