Alameda County public health officer is expected to lift Covid-19 health order next week
Who is eyeing Lee's congressional seat? Skinner's termed out state senate seat? Who's thinking of applying for late Alameda County Supervisor Valle's seat?
COUNTY NEWS
—EVICTIONS COMING?—California’s Covid-19 state of emergency is due to expire next Tuesday. Alameda County is expected to follow suit, meaning its countywide eviction moratorium will begin to wind down over the next two months.
—Alameda County Housing Director Michelle Starratt said on Wednesday night that she expects Public Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss to formally rescind the county’s Covid-19 health order at the Feb. 28 Board of Supervisors meeting.
—“Our eviction moratorium will be ending very soon,” Starratt said.
—Alameda County’s nearly three-year-old eviction moratorium is valid until the public health order is lifted, but evictions will not resume until 60 days later.
—Without the moratorium, tenants’ advocates expect a wave of evictions to begin during the first week of May.
—Ever since Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the end of the state of emergency would arrive at the end of February, there have been questions about whether Moss would remove the county’s order in a timely manner.
—The speculation highlighted the immense, unchecked power the county’s unelected public health officer has maintained since the beginning of the pandemic.
—Starratt’s comments came at an Unincorporated Services Committee meeting in San Lorenzo that included a presentation on the county’s three renters’ protections ordinances.
—The underlining message offered by Starratt is the county’s just cause ordinance, still waiting to be formally approved by the board, is needed as a bulwark against an expected wave of evictions on the horizon.
—“We are expecting a spike,” Starratt said of evictions in unincorporated Alameda County.
—Without an eviction moratorium, the rate of evictions in Contra Costa County and Santa Clara County has increased roughly 40 percent above pre-pandemic levels, Starratt said.
—A second and final reading of the county’s renters’ protection ordinances is also expected to be on the Feb. 28 meeting agenda. The fate of the ordinances, however, remains uncertain.
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