by Adrian Rodriguez, Marin IJ
The San Rafael City Council unanimously approved an urgency ordinance this week prohibiting pandemic-related residential evictions through Sept. 30.
Alexis Captanian, the city’s housing analyst, told the council that residents continue to experience financial hardship from the COVID-19 crisis that threatens their housing stability. The ordinance, which will take effect July 1, will prevent evictions and late fees for those tenants.
“I fully support the eviction moratorium. It’s important to have this safety net, but it’s not addressing the real problem, which is that distribution of funds,” Vice Mayor Rachel Kertz said. “Anything that we can do to help the county with the urgency, I think would be really important for us to do.”
Captanian said the timeline aligns with Marin County’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which has a goal of distributing its remaining $8.5 million in rental assistance funds by Sept. 30. The county has been awarded a total of $36.4 million in state and federal funds and has distributed more than $23 million to 1,260 households in Marin since 2020.
