Pittsburgh City Council members are working to fine-tune a temporary ban on evictions in the city during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are all hoping to be through with the pandemic, but the pandemic isn’t through with us,” Councilwoman Deb Gross told the Tribune-Review Wednesday. “We’re almost through it, and we need people to have a home to shelter in.”
Council passed a temporary law restricting evictions on March 2, but implementing it has been a different matter. On March 5, a group representing landlords sued the city about the new law and the following week the city worked out how it can be implemented.
This week, Gross introduced revisions to the ban that more clearly define who can be evicted and reduce the fines associated landlords who violate the law.
The city’s Commission on Human Relations has added information about the moratorium on its website, Gross said.
The proposed revisions remove language in the law that was vague or confusing and instead state that landlords can’t “remove or dispossess a household except for good cause.”
The Commission on Human Relations is authorized to be the arbiter of whether a “good cause” to evict remains. The ban only remains in effect as long as the covid-related emergency.
People can still be evicted is they present a health or safety danger to other residents or if they are found to have made a “serious” violation of a lease.
The fines for landlords who violate the law were initially “as much as $10,000.” Council is working to tweak that language and the proposed fine would be $1,000 for improperly evicting a household without children and up to $2,500 for a household that’s evicted with children under the age of 13.
The language about whether the fines are flat-based or can be arbitrarily decided upon by a district judge haven’t been finalized, but will be when the revisions are considered for adoption at Tuesday’s council meeting, Gross said.
The ban isn’t intended to penalize landlords, council members have said. Instead, the aim is to protect everyone’s health and safety during the pandemic, Gross said.
During a council committee meeting Wednesday, Councilman Bruce Kraus shared a conversation he had with a South Side constituent who is a landlord.
The man, whom Kraus didn’t identify, has three properties that are facing liens because of unpaid utility bills and the rent is overdue on the properties. As a landlord, he’s been trying to work with the tenants to provide them shelter, but he’s also facing financial challenges of his own, Kraus said.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have a joint rent and utility assistance program that is now in place and accepting applications, Gross said. The program, funded with federal covid relief money, can pay back-due rent and utility bills that can “make landlords whole,” she said.
For information about the program, click here.
“People can get relief,” Gross said.
Council will consider revising the law when it meets Tuesday.
