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June 23, 2020 VIA EMAIL City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92702 Email: eComment@santa-ana.org Dear Councilmembers: The undersigned legal services organizations write to urge you to protect your most vulnerable residents and request that the County Board of Supervisors ask the Orange County Sheriff's Department suspend the pending 185 evictions that were set to start June 1, 2020 for the duration of the State of Emergency relating to COVID-19 and an additional thirty days following the termination of the State of Emergency. California remains in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number have grown substantially, with more than two million cases nationwide. The County of Orange recently reported approximately 10,595 cumulative cases of COVID-19, 175 active cases, and 269 deaths from COVID-19.' Despite efforts to reopen and relax rules governing the face coverings in public, the increase in cases and deaths, should cause the City of Santa Ana pause, especially in light of those who are amid eviction and at risk of homelessness. The City must not countenance a result Our organization provides critical legal services to low-income communities, which includes, but is not limited to, tenant counseling and eviction defense and we each advocate for the rights of low-income tenants. We serve clients and communities to ensure equal access to the justice system for people who could not otherwise afford attorneys. In previous correspondence with the Board of Supervisors, we explained that suspending the enforcement of eviction orders is not only critical for protecting public health, but that it is within the powers of the Board of Supervisors to do so.' Suspending the enforcement of eviction orders will ensure that families do not become homeless when they are legally required to shelter in place and will reduce the risk of exposure for your deputies. In Orange County, there are already close to 7,000 unsheltered individuals.' On April 6, 2020, the Judicial Council adopted a rule that effectively stays all eviction proceedings and judicial foreclosure proceedings throughout the State of California and continues all eviction trials, for a period 'See C.C. COVID-19 Orange County Case Counts, available at httos://occovidl9.ochealthinfo.com/coronavirus-in-oc (current data posted as of June 22, 2020). z CA Gov. Code § 25303 ("The Board of Supervisors is responsible for supervising `the official conduct of all county officers, and officers of all districts and other subdivisions of the County... "'). See also Brewster v. Shasta Cty., 275 F.3d 803, 809-10 (9th Cit. 2001) (establishing an affirmative duty of the Board of Supervisors to supervise the conduct of all county official including the sheriff so long as the supervision does not interfere with the investigation of a crime.) ' Latest Point in Time Count Finds Almost 7000 Homeless People in Orange County, available at h ttps://www.latimes. com/socal/daily-pilot/news/tn-dp t-me-pit-co unt-results-20190424-story. h tml