Ordinance 3268CITY OF ALAMEDA ORDINANCE NO. 3268
New Series
AN URGENCY UNCODIFIED ORDINANCE IMPOSING WITHIN THE
CITY OF ALAMEDA A TEMPORARY (60 DAY) MORATORIUM ON (A)
EVICTIONS FROM ALL RESIDENTIAL RENTAL UNITS DUE TO THE
COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND (B) LANDLORDS' SHUTTING OF
UTILITIES IN RENTAL UNITS EXCEPT FOR EMERGENCY
SITUATIONS
WHEREAS, Section 3-12 of the City Charter authorizes the City Council, with a
4/5 vote, to adopt, as an urgency measure, an ordinance for the immediate
preservation of the public health or safety without following the procedures otherwise
required prior to adoption of an ordinance; and
WHEREAS, Government Code Section 36937 allows a city, including a charter
city, to adopt an urgency ordinance to take effect immediately upon its adoption for the
preservation of the public peace, health or safety upon a finding of facts constituting the
urgency thereof; and
WHEREAS, conditions of extreme peril to the health, safety and welfare of persons
have arisen in the world, the nation, the State, the County of Alameda and the City of
Alameda due to the following:
A novel coronavirus (named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization) was first
detected in December 2019. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
stated that COVID-19 is a serious public health threat, based on current information. Cases
of COVID-19 have been diagnosed throughout the world, the United States, the State of
California, the County of Alameda and the City of Alameda.
The exact modes of transmission of COVID-19, the factors facilitating human to
human transmission, the extent of asymptomatic viral shedding, the groups most at risk of
serious illness, the attack rate, and the case fatality rate all remain active areas of
investigation. The CDC believes, at this time, the symptoms appear two to fourteen days
after exposure. Currently, there are no vaccine or specific anti-viral treatment for COVID-
19.
Actions are being taken to protect public health and limit the spread of COVID-19
but the whether those actions will be successful is unknown at this time.
Due to COVID-19, the President of the United States has declared a national
emergency, the Governor of the State of California has declared a State of Emergency for
the State and for all the Counties in the State, and the City Council of the City of Alameda
has declared a local emergency; and
WHEREAS, as a result of these various declarations and the threat to public health
and safety due to the contagious nature of CO VI D-19, public and private gatherings of
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persons have been prohibited, most schools, kindergartens, day care centers have been
closed, many businesses have been shuttered or their hours or means of operation
curtailed, and many businesses, especially service related businesses, such as
restaurants, have been impacted financially due to a lack of business; and
WHEREAS, because of these impacts, many employers have laid off or will need to
lay off employees, working Alameda residents with children may be compelled not to work
in order to provide care for their children, and many Alameda residents who are working
and become ill due to COVID-19, or who must self-quarantine due to COVID-19 because
they have been exposed to COVID-19, do not have paid sick leave; and
WHEREAS, those residents financially impacted due to COVID-19 may not be able
to pay rent or be faced with the Hobson's Choice of paying rent and not having sufficient
funds for food, medical care or other necessities for themselves and their families; and
WHEREAS, residents unable to pay rent under these circumstances would be faced
with the prospect of being evicted from their homes; and
WHEREAS, neither existing State law nor City of Alameda ordinance prohibits this
type of just cause evictions during the States of Emergency that have been declared; and
WHEREAS, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the City of Alameda, the public
health, safety and welfare are not adequately protected by the lack of just cause evictions
for failure to pay rent, and it is in the interest of the City, of owners and residents of
rental units, and of the community as a whole that City adopt an ordinance to protect
residents who face eviction due to a substantial loss of income arising out of the
COVID-19 pandemic; and
WHEREAS, if a landlord were to shut off a tenant's utility for reasons unrelated to
an emergency, such shut off would also cause a tenant to be displaced from the tenant's
rental unit at a time when residents are being encouraged to remain in their residences
and finding alternative housing would expose tenants unnecessarily to COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, in light of the numerous concerns noted herein, including but not
limited to the current and immediate threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the City's
residents and the adverse impacts that would result from evictions due to a
resident's loss of substantial income, or from a tenant's being displaced due to
utilities being shut off for non-emergency purposes, the City Council determines it is
in the interest of immediately preserving the public health, safety and general welfare to
adopt this urgency ordinance; and
WHEREAS, the City Council finds and determines that, if a temporary
moratorium on just cause evictions from residential rental units due to a resident's loss
of substantial income arising out of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic were
not imposed now, the public health, safety and welfare will be immediately threatened
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because landlords could initiate action to evict tenants who were unable to pay rent
due to a substantial loss of income; and
WHEREAS, the City Council finds and determines that, if a temporary
moratorium on landlords' shutting off a tenant's utilities for non-emergency purposes
is not imposed now, the public health, safety and welfare will be immediately
threatened because tenants will be forced to leave their rental units to find alternative
housing, thereby causing them and their households to be unnecessarily exposed to
COVID-19; and
WHEREAS, for reasons set forth above, this ordinance is declared by the City
Council to be necessary for preserving the public welfare, health, or safety and to avoid
a current, immediate and direct threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the
community, and the recitals above taken together constitute the City Council's
statements of the reasons constituting such necessity and urgency; and
WHEREAS, adoption of this ordinance is exempt from review under the California
Environmental Quality Act: Section 15378 (not a project); and Section 15061 (b)(3) (no
significant environmental impact); and
WHEREAS, by the staff report, testimony, and documentary evidence presented at
the March 17, 2020 City Council meeting, the City Council has been provided with
additional information upon which the findings and actions set forth in this ordinance are
based.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
ALAMEDA does ordain as follows:
SECTION 1 . The City Council finds and determines the foregoing recitals to be
true and correct and hereby incorporates them into this ordinance.
SECTION 2. From the effective date of this urgency ordinance and continuing
for a period of sixty (60) days, unless extended, the following is adopted:
SUBSTANTIVE EVICTION DEFENSE FOR UNLAWFUL DETAINERS
INSTITUTED FOR NON-PAYMENT OF RENT RESULTING FROM THE COVID
19 PANDEMIC AND PROHIBITING LANDLORDS FROM SHUTTING OFF A
TENANT'S UTILITIES EXCEPT FOR EMERGENCY SITUATIONS.
1 . For purposes of this Ordinance, the following terms shall have the following
meanings:
A. Substantial Loss of Income shall a mean (1) a reduction of 20% or more of
a tenant's monthly gross pay, when that monthly gross pay is compared to
the tenant's average gross monthly pay during calendar year 2019; (2)
extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses; or (3) extraordinary child
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care needs arising from school or childcare closures, relating to or resulting
from the COVID-19 pandemic, including but not limited to, the need to
remain off work due to COVID-19 symptoms of the tenant or a member of
the tenant's household or due to the need of the tenant to self-quarantine
because of the exposure to COVID-19 and the lack of paid sick leave, a
reduction in the number of hours for which the tenant is paid, job loss due
closure of the enterprise, business, restaurant, office, store etc. that
employed the tenant, or the need to be off work to care for children whose
School is closed.
B. School shall mean any public, private, or parochial institution that provides
educational instruction and/or after school programs for students in any or
all of the grades from kindergarten through twelfth grade, any State licensed
child care center, and/or any State licensed family day care center
2. It shall be a defense in any eviction action instituted under State law if:
A. The eviction action is instituted for non-payment of rent or, as to a Section
8 Program tenant, for non-payment of the tenant's share of the contract rent;
B. The tenant demonstrates by substantial evidence that the tenant or the
tenant's household has suffered a Substantial Loss of Income; or if the
tenant is sick with COVID-19 or caring for a household or family member
who is sick with CO VI D-19 and
C. The notice to quit or pay rent was served on or after March 1, 2020.
3. No landlord shall shut off a tenant's utilities for reasons unrelated to an emergency.
4. The City Manager is authorized to extend the expiration date of this Ordinance so long
as the State of California remains in a declared a State of Emergency relating to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the Council is unable to timely meet.
SECTION 3: This ordinance is enacted pursuant to the City of Alameda's general
police powers, Section 3-12 of the Charter of the City of Alameda, Article XI of the
California Constitution, and Government Code Section 36937.
SECTION 4. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this
ordinance is for any reason held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid,
such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance.
The City Council declares that it would have adopted this ordinance and each section,
subsection, sentence, clause and phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or
more section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase be declared invalid.
SECTION 5. All evictions based on a Substantial Loss of Income on or after the
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date of final passage and adoption of this Ordinance shall be subject to this Ordinance.
As an emergency ordinance, this Ordinance becomes effective immediately upon its
adoption at a first reading by a four-fifths vote of the City Council.
______________________________
Presiding Officer of the City Council
Attest:
_____________________________
Lara Weisiger, City Clerk
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I certify that the foregoing Ordinance was passed and adopted by the City
Council of the City of Alameda at a regular meeting thereof held on this 17th day of March
2020 by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Knox White, Oddie, Vella and Mayor Ezzy
Ashcraft – 4.
NOES: Councilmember Daysog - 1.
ABSENT: None.
ABSTENTIONS: None.
IN WITNESS, WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official
seal of said City this 18th day of March 2020.
Lara Weisiger, City Clerk
City of Alameda
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
______________________
Yibin Shen, City Attorney
City of Alameda