Alameda County Sees Busiest Week Ever For Eviction Cases

ALAMEDA, CA — A pandemic-era moratorium that ended in April allowed for landlords throughout the county to begin eviction proceedings against their tenants, who in some cases hadn't paid rent in more than a year.

On Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski 's docket last Wednesday were 79 cases — the busiest day in the court's history for evictions — where landlords, many who were behind on mortgages and payments due to the eviction moratorium, finally had their day in court, an article in the East Bay Times said.

History Of The Eviction Moratorium.

The moratorium which began in March 22, 2020, protected Alameda County renters who could not pay until 60 days after the expiration of the local health emergency, which expired March 1, 2023. When the eviction moratorium ended on April 29, it opened the doors for landlords to being the process of eviction of tenants who continued to not paid their rents after the moratorium ended.

According to East Bay Housing Organizations, while the eviction moratorium was in place, tenants were protected from all evictions "except for those based on an imminent threat to public health or safety, a government order to vacate the building," or the Ellis Act, a law allowing a landlord to go out of business.

"Even after the end of the moratorium, you cannot be evicted for rent that was due while it was in effect, between March 24, 2020 and April 29, 2023. However, it is best to prove COVID related hardship if you can." East Bay Housing Organizations said.

The East Bay Times article on the wave of evictions said that in shielding renters who could not pay, the moratorium left landlords to provide free housing, even as their own mortgages came due.

Alameda County Landlords Owed Nearly $1 Billion In Rent

"Across Alameda County, property owners are owed nearly $1 billion in rent, according to data from the East Bay Rental Housing Association. Nearly 15% of property owners were at a risk of foreclosure," East Bay Times said.

Chris Tipton, a spokesperson for the East Bay Rental Housing Association told the East Bay Times that property owners across Alameda County were "subsidizing rent for for people that couldn’t pay.”

“Restaurants weren’t having to give away free food, gas stations weren’t giving out free gasoline — no other business or industry was asked to do that,” Tipton said.

Many of the landlords moving forward with evictions don't expect to recoup the pandemic related unpaid rents, the East Bay Rental Housing Association said, but they can attempt to reclaim the back rent in small claims court.

"While there are calls for new governmental funds to 'make property owners whole,' there are no definitive answers where this funding will come from or how it will be dispersed," East Bay Rental Housing Association said.

Did State Rental Assistance Funding Fail Those In Need?

The state had created a $5.2 billion fund for rental assistance during the pandemic, but as of March 2022, the state still struggled to get those funds into the hands of needy tenants and landlords, according to an analysis of the state program by the National Equity Atlas.

"Roughly 20,000 applicants have been approved and are waiting for payments, and other 50,000 applicants are still waiting for their cases to be reviewed," the East Bay Times reported.

The National Equity Atlas analysis found several weaknesses in California’s program at that time, saying that in March 2022, about 60 percent of approved applicants had yet to receive funds. The analysis showed the median wait time between application and payment was 135 days and that while roughly 180,000 applications had been approved, 289,000 were still under review.

The demand in California was immense and while the analysis questioned the state's ability to disperse funds in a timely manner, California officials disputed those claims, saying many households had already been helped.

“We absolutely are the largest, most successful program in the country,” Geoffrey Ross of Department of Housing and Community Development told East Bay Times in March 2022.

What Is Next For Renters

Renters who are caught up in the wave of evictions are likely to face only two options, either pay up, or get out, according to the East Bay Times article.

"... They end up settling, with the client agreeing to move out by a certain date, with the landlord offering a waiver of some of the back rent," the article said.

But moving to a new home could prove to be easier said than done in Alameda County, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute said.

"Housing affordability in Alameda County has reached a crisis point," Bay Area Council Economic Institute said. "With rents and home prices spiraling upward since the Great Recession, there has been no shortage of policy proposals envisioned to alleviate the county’s affordability problem."

Anne Tamiko Omura, executive director of the Eviction Defense Center in Oakland agrees with that assessment saying with the housing shortage in the county, there was no place for displaced renters to go.

"Even if you’re able to get a debt forgiven for a tenant and give them a few weeks to move out, the reality is that the majority of them aren’t going to find any place to live."

Read the full story on East Bay Times.