Honorable Mayor Ashcraft and Members of Alameda City Council We wish to address item number 5H, the continuing emergency resolution for the Covid pandemic, which includes a continuing eviction moratorium The covid infection is waning nation * : with most localities lifting mask mandates. As • a nation we have begun to understand that covid will never entirely go away, but that it will become endemic as so many other diseases have.
The continui eviction moratorium is particularly problematic for the com ircial rental industry. No oner business is being forced to offer its product free of charge for the foreseeable future. Some ants owe us well over a year's rent. There is no realistic hope of ever collecting. It is problematic for us because our properties are put on waivers with the lenders due to our not maintaining the agreed rental income that the promissory note calls for. In other words, even though we are paying the mortgage the lender must carry the loan as non-performing. I hope that you can see that the eviction moratorium is causing much mischief in the industry.
If you truly must ex id the emergency, cannot the eviction moratorium be lifted at least for commercial pro ty? While there is a program to reimburse idential landlords, there is none for commercial.
There are no standards for when to l e an eviction moratorium and when to end an eviction moratorium. So those who work in this industry are left with no guidance as to what to expect. Our only reaction can be to tighten le ng standards. Which we have done. But we have had to decline applications from prospects with good ideas, but blemished credit statements. Several were quite distraught to learn that we would not lease to them. We cannot believe that this is the outcome that the council truly desires, but it is the one that the council is engineeri* -
Respectfully submi
Edward L. Hirshberg