Coronavirus Update: San Francisco Mayor Announces Eviction Moratorium For Small Businesses
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Tuesday announced an additional moratorium on evictions in the City that will apply to small and medium-sized businesses in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
The mayor made the announcement with a Twitter post Tuesday afternoon at around 2 p.m. A press release on the Mayor's official website stated the moratorium "..will prevent any small to medium-sized business from being evicted due to a loss of income related to lost revenue or other economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."
"These businesses are being hit hard and need our support. We'll continue to push for more state and federal resources," the post read.
Today I'm announcing a moratorium on evictions of small and medium-sized businesses related to financial impacts caused by coronavirus.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 17, 2020
These businesses are being hit hard and need our support. We'll continue to push for more state and federal resources.
Ordinarily under normal state law, cities and counties are prohibited from regulating commercial evictions. However, Breed and the city of San Francisco were allowed to take the action following the executive order issued by Governor Gavin Newsom Monday.
Breed issued the new moratorium under the powers of the local emergency she declared over the coronavirus pandemic last month. The eviction moratorium for small and medium-sized business will be in effect for 30 days and can be extended by the Mayor for an additional 30 days through an executive order. If the local emergency is rescinded by the Mayor at any point, the moratorium will cease to be in effect.
The commercial eviction moratorium will apply to businesses with a license to operate in San Francisco that have less than $25 million in annual gross receipts.
The mayor additionally noted that the city would be supporting businesses by deferring taxes and licensing fees as well as launching a relief fund for impacted businesses. Resources, contacts, and updates for small businesses can be found at the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce development website.
The mayor also announced that she was waiving provisions that would allow the city to hire additional health care workers in order to properly staff hospitals during the public health emergency.
Our health care workers are on the front lines of this public health emergency. We need to make sure we have enough nurses available to care for our residents.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 17, 2020
I'm temporarily waiving provisions to allow us to hire health care workers on the spot in response to this pandemic.
The announcement comes several days after the mayor issued a city moratorium on housing evictions that went into effect last Friday.