State Eviction Moratorium Ends Next Month, but Pasadena Protections Will Remain

Even if talks in Congress over COVID-19 relief stall or fail to contain protections for renters, Pasadena’s eviction moratorium will remain in effect.

Currently, Pasadena commercial and residential tenants impacted by the virus are protected by the local moratorium, which bans evictions during the public health emergency.

However, the local moratorium is not rent forgiveness. Tenants will be required to pay back rent within six months after the emergency ends.

A state moratorium is due to end at the end of January. 

“The city does not have any authority over the state’s rent eviction moratorium,” said Pasadena Housing Director Bill Huang.

“However,” Huang said, “the city’s eviction moratorium is in place until the emergency order is lifted and (tenants) will have six months thereafter to pay back rent. There is no date for when the emergency order is to be lifted. Also, it is expected that if a new stimulus bill is approved by the feds it would include an extension of the federal eviction moratorium. It’s a patchwork of protections, but, essentially, COVID-impacted renter households in Pasadena are likely to be protected from evictions due to nonpayment of rents for the near future.”

Congress is currently discussing a new COVID-19 relief package and a vote on that proposal could come this weekend.

Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco) has proposed a bill to extend the state rent moratorium through December 2021, but the Legislature won’t convene to discuss the proposal until after the new year.

California tenants owe about $1.7 billion in back rent, according to some estimates.

If protections are not extended, dire consequences will follow,  according to a recent UCLA study that reviewed data in 27 states that lifted eviction moratoriums. 

The removal of tenant protections was linked to nearly a half-million cases of COVID-19, 433,700 additional COVID cases, and an additional 10,700 fatalities. 

“This isn’t theoretical. Those are real lives that should’ve been saved and we can’t allow that to be California’s fate,” Chiu said,