San Francisco Bans Eviction for COVID-Related Rent Debt After April 1

SAN FRANCISCO — As statewide eviction protections are set to expire, San Francisco lawmakers unanimously passed today a ban on nonpayment evictions due to COVID-hardship for rent that becomes due after April 1, 2022.

“As we have from the start, we will continue to use every available tool to make sure people impacted by the pandemic can stay in their homes,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, sponsor of the measure. “The reality is that while statewide eviction protections are ending, for many people, the hardship is not. That’s why we need these protections in place.”

In June 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.

In August 2020, California passed a law that created more limited statewide eviction protections, while also preempting cities from passing additional, more protective measures for COVID-related nonpayment. “In effect, the state intervened to stop San Francisco from determining the best way to keep people in their homes,” said Preston.

The eviction protections in AB 832 expired in October 2021, but the provisions that prevent eviction where there is pending application for rental assistance, as well as the provisions that preempt local governments from enacting their own COVID nonpayment eviction protections, remain in effect until April 1, 2022.

The law passed today effectively reinstates the previous anti-eviction framework, providing permanent protections for tenants unable to pay rent during the state of emergency. The time period covered by this legislation begins April 1 and will end with termination of the local COVID-19 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.

“The economic impacts of the pandemic are not over for too many San Franciscans, including the 10,000 households still waiting for their applications to be processed by the state emergency rent relief program,” said Molly Goldberg of the Anti-Displacement Coalition. “This is a common sense stopgap to ensure that the recovery period does not leave behind the low income families and black and brown tenants who have disproportionately shouldered the economic and health impacts of this crisis.”

###