BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
San Mateo County’s Board of Supervisors tomorrow (April 7) will consider banning evictions of small businesses in unincorporated county, which includes North Fair Oaks and parts of the coastside.
The ban will be applicable to businesses that make less than $2.5 million in gross receipts in a year who cannot pay their rent because of implications from COVID-19, such as loss of revenue due to the stay-at-home order, illness or increases to doing business, according to a memo from board supervisors Dave Pine and Warren Slocum.
If approved by the supervisors, the moratorium will be in effect until May 31, unless the stay-at-home order, and the moratorium, are extended.
“Running a small business is challenging in the best of times,” Pine said. “So this is to provide a menu of options to help them survive this pandemic and not go out of business.”
Pine said he’s aware of a restaurateur who is worried about not being able to pay his restaurant’s rent due to COVID-19.
In a statement from the county, Slocum, who represents the district that includes North Fair Oaks, said right now that the community is also trying to make sense of the virus and are “struggling even more.”
“Providing relief from the fear of being evicted because they cannot pay rent — through no fault of their own — is one concrete step my colleagues and I are proud to take,” Slocum said.
This moratorium does not let business owners off the hook for paying rent. If they are able, business owners are to make at least partial rent payments while the stay-at-home order and moratorium are still in effect.
Once the moratorium is over, small businesses will be liable for back rent for 180 days, or six months. Tenants will have to request up to three extensions after the first three months, according to the ordinance establishing the moratorium.
The county board of supervisors will be considering the moratorium at its meeting tomorrow (April 7) at 9 p.m. It can be livestreamed at https://sanmateocounty.legistar.com.