San Jose to consider banning rent collection - Mtg Tuesday 4/7

[Chad Hale]

From City of San Jose Director Housing Department

04/06/2020

Residential Landlords, Tenants, and Property Owners in San José, During the "Orders of the Day" portion of the San José City Council meeting on April 7, 2020, a memorandum titled "Rent Suspension" will be discussed. The memorandum includes a recommendation to "enact an emergency resolution for a residential rent suspension for 90 days for all units if the tenant can demonstrate a direct financial impact due to the coronavirus pandemic." The memorandum also includes a recommendation to make the rent suspension retroactive to April 1, 2020. During the "Orders of the Day" discussion, if two-thirds of the council members vote to place the memorandum on the City Council agenda for that same day, it will be agendized immediately for consideration as agenda item 8.3 on April 7, 2020. If the memorandum does not receive a two-thirds vote in favor of being agendized, then it will be dropped. Please note, this will be a virtual San José City Council meeting due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. You can find instructions for how to participate in the meeting in this PDF. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 PDT.

Sincerely, Jacky Morales-Ferrand Director, Housing Department City of San José

You can send comments to the city on this matter at cityclerk   at  sanjoseca  dot gov  by noon Tuesday 4/7.

[Greg M.]

From a Q&A yesterday with LA Mayor Garcetti:

Q: What are the chances that a moratorium on rent and mortgages will be considered?

A: I have said since the beginning of this that the best policy would be in exchange for federal support of banks and lenders, there should be mortgage forgiveness, and then tthe same for rent. Without all three levels working together, it is a mess. Local government has no power to mandate this, though we have asked the state to do so (also some deep legal questions), and I support the federal government doing this (after all, our tax dollars, we should have some say about how they are spent). If the city were to, we would be liable for all of the rents and according to back of napkin calculations, we wouldn't have the cash flow to pay for even two weeks of everyone's rent and in about three months the city government would have no money and be bankrupt (no fire department, no 911, no power, no water, etc.). 

I'm very glad the Mayor admitted publicly that they have no authority to waive rents and that the City would be liable if they did it. As it is right now, I wonder if landlords could prevail in court by suing cities for the intentional harm they have caused landlords under Tortious Interference.

Note: I edited both the Q & A down to remove self fluffing.