In his newsletter Oakland District 6 Councilmember Loren Taylor shared a series of news updates related to homelessness and tenant and landlord protection. Here they are:
City Of Oakland Homeless Encampment Management Policy
When the pandemic hit the city council moved quickly into shelter in place in March, pausing the sunshine ordinance to allow city business to continue remotely. Now in September, more informed and better prepared, council has reinstated 10-day noticing for all items to be heard at council and regular rules committee hearings for transparent scheduling.
As we kick off our fall legislative session look out for these items to be scheduled soon. The Life Enrichment committee (Chaired by Councilmember Taylor) will be considering changes to the Homeless Encampment Management Policy. The meeting is schedule for Monday, September 21st visit City of Oakland website of meeting information.
Email us at [email protected] if interested in more information.
State Of California Tenant and Landlord Protection Legislation
September 1st the Assembly and Senate both approved AB 3088, which is designed to protect tenants from eviction, and property owners from foreclosure, due to the economic impacts of COVID-19.
The measure was signed into law by Governor Newsom and the details are as follows:
The protections in AB 3088 apply to tenants who declare an inability to pay all or part of their rent due to a COVID-19-related reason.
Under the legislation, no tenant can be evicted before February 1, 2021 as a result of rent owed due to a COVID-19-related hardship accrued between March 4th and August 31st, if the tenant provides a declaration of hardship.
For COVID-19 related hardships that accrue between September 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021, tenants must also pay at least 25% of the rent due to avoid eviction.
Tenants are still responsible for paying unpaid amounts to landlords, but those unpaid amounts cannot be the basis for an eviction.
Landlords may begin to recover this debt on March 1, 2021, and small claims court jurisdiction is temporarily expanded to allow landlords to recover these amounts.
AB 3088 extends anti-foreclosure protections in the Homeowner Bill of Rights to small landlords, provides new accountability and transparency provisions to protect small landlord borrowers who request CARES Act-compliant forbearance, and provides the borrower who is harmed by a material violation with a cause of action.
Existing local ordinances can generally remain in place until they expire and future local action cannot undermine the framework of AB 3088.
Several members of the Legislature, including the author, noted that AB 3088 should be viewed as a short-term solution and that additional legislation would be necessary to further address this issue when the Legislature returns to session in January 2021.
Stay tuned.