With State Barriers Expiring, Supervisor Preston's Ban on COVID-19 Evictions To Take Effect July 1

SAN FRANCISCO — Starting July 1, San Franciscans who can’t pay rent because of pandemic hardship cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent, thanks to a law passed earlier this year by Supervisor Dean Preston, which will now take effect with state barriers expiring. The law applies to rent due starting July 1, 2022 through the end of the local state of emergency.

“As long as the conditions of our pandemic warrant a local state of emergency, no one should lose their home because of COVID hardship,” said Preston. “Now that the state has stepped aside, we can again use everything in our power to protect San Franciscans against eviction.”

In March, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance protecting against nonpayment evictions due to pandemic hardship. Just days later, state lawmakers stepped in and passed AB 2179, which extended some limited protections, while disallowing cities like San Francisco from enacting their own laws until July 1, 2022. Now that the state law is sunsetting, the l ocal protections passed earlier this year can take effect.

“I’m proud of the fact that San Francisco has led the way in protecting tenants from eviction during this pandemic,” said Preston. “We know that our local protections have kept thousands of people in their homes and prevented homelessness.”

Preston's law effectively reinstates a previous anti-eviction ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors, providing permanent protections for tenants unable to pay rent during the state of emergency. The legislation does not waive the tenants obligation to pay the rent owed or cancel the rent debt; instead, it simply takes eviction out of the equation. Importantly, Preston’s law does not impact rental debt incurred prior to July 1, 2022, which could still result in nonpayment eviction.

In 2020, the Board of Supervisors passed a similar proposal that made rent debt caused by COVID-19 permanently non-evictable, which covered rent that became due between April and September 2020. The law was challenged in court, but upheld in an August 2020 ruling, which found that the law “is a permissible exercise” of the city’s power to regulate evictions “to promote public welfare.”

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