Mountain View City Council Approves Additional COVID-19 Relief, Suspends Evictions
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- Ten days after passing a $500,000 rent relief package, the Mountain View City Council passed another $800,000 relief package Friday night to help local small businesses, local homeless and people with unstable living situations, in addition to suspending evictions through the end of May.
These relief efforts, known as TogetherMV, will be combined with a local donation portal set to launch early next week to help the above mentioned businesses and individuals as well as local seniors and residents struggling with garbage or water bills.
In addition, Mountain View joined other cities in the region to pass an urgency ordinance to suspend evictions for nonpayment of rent due to COVID-19-caused hardship for residential renters, including mobile home lot renters, for 120 days after the May 31 expiration date of the ordinance.
Included in the $800,000 package approved at a special video meeting Friday night are $400,000 for small-business relief with an additional $100,000 earmarked to loan to small apartment complex owners with nine or fewer units who prove COVID-related hardships; $50,000 for portable restrooms, hand-washing stations, mobile showers and washer and dryers; $50,000 for a grocery gift-card program for local homeless, unstably housed and seniors in need; $100,000 for expansion of the Safe Parking Program pilot to run 24/7 at Shoreline, Terra Bella and Evelyn lots during this crisis; and $100,000 to design and implement a program to help with hardships in paying garbage and water utility bills due to COVID-19 impacts.
"I'm extremely proud of my fellow Councilmembers and city staff for putting together such a robust, comprehensive relief package in just two short weeks to help our neighbors, seniors, small businesses, employers, homeless, children and the most vulnerable in our community," said Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga in a press release on the relief plan. "Our goal was to quickly help as many people in Mountain View as possible who have been impacted by this unprecedented crisis, and I think we have done exactly that."
More details of the Council Actions are available at MountainView.gov/COVID.
