San Diego County approves moratorium on residential, commercial evictions for people affected by COVID 19

San Diego County will place a moratorium on all evictions of residential and commercial renters in the unincorporated areas who have seen their income reduced or been otherwise substantially economically harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday county supervisors unanimously approved a resolution creating the moratorium, which will last until May 31.

Even with the moratorium in place, affected residents would still be required to pay back the rent owed at a later date if they miss a payment.

As part of the same proposal, supervisors also approved placing a freeze on foreclosures and foreclosure-related evictions.

And they instructed the county’s Housing Authority to extend deadlines for housing assistance recipients and applicants to deliver documents related to their eligibility for programs.

More than 486,000 residents live in the unincorporated areas of San Diego County.

Supervisors Nathan Fletcher and Kristin Gaspar, who co-authored the board letter introducing all three proposals, said the moratorium will help some San Diego County residents and businesses who have been hardest hit by business closures and reduced hours instituted to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The daily average of unemployment claims filed in California has reportedly skyrocketed over the past week, and the governor said more than 135,000 claims had been filed by end of last week.

“In these difficult economic times we are doing all we can to assure the public that we will get through this,” said Fletcher Tuesday.

“We want to make sure no one during this period of difficulty loses their home. We want to make sure everyone is fed. We want to make sure we can get through this in a humane and compassionate way and rebuild our economy going forward.”

Tuesday’s actions by the board capitalize on an executive order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and bring the county in line with several other localities that have taken aim at halting evictions to lighten the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week the governor enabled local cities and counties to put a moratorium on evictions through May 31, and so far many large localities have done that including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.

The San Diego City Council is scheduled to vote on implementing a similar moratorium on evictions Wednesday.

The moratoriums have been met with some pushback from landlords and property owners across the state who argue the moratoriums are not clearly defined and may pass the economic strain onto them.

Those concerns were shared by members of the industry advocacy groups who addressed the board Tuesday, although none argued that steps should not be taken to help prevent evictions.

Mitch Thompson, a Chula Vista resident and member of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, said he worried that the resolution didn’t define what a “substantial decrease in income” was and said the resolution didn’t mention whether residents are still required to pay at least some portion of their rents if they were able.

“As a property owner and representative of PSAR, we understand that we need to be part of the solution and that we need to work very closely, like everybody, to pitch in and help all of us get through this critical period,” Thompson said. “But I’m not sure this resolution is the most balanced that it could be.”

County supervisors acknowledged some of those concerns and said the policies would be looked at as the situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve.

“I believe we need to give the most vulnerable in our community the tools they need to get through this pandemic, and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures is the right thing to do,” Gaspar said Tuesday. “I also understand the concerns of property owners who have mortgages to pay. Understand all of these things will continually change, and we will need to adjust policies constantly over the next several weeks.”

The Board of Supervisors is not scheduled to meet again until April 7. Although the county is expected to continue holding daily press briefings with updates on the state of COVID-19.