Name: SF mayor, county may seize private buildings for coronavirus relief
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SF mayor, county may seize private buildings for coronavirus relief

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Filed under:City Attorney Dennis Herrera says there’s broad power to commandeer buildings and land during an emergencySan Francisco’s civic government can seize seemingly any privately-owned land or buildings as part of its effort to protect people from the COVID-19 outbreak.In fact, according to San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, there are few limits on what certain public office holders may do with private property .—a response to queries from unnamed parties at City Hall—Herrera explains the process for commandeering properties, and the rules by which SF must abide if it takes this extreme step.Among the city attorney’s conclusions:RelatedThe memo does not detail precisely why Herrera’s office is fielding this request now, but it’s almost certainly to do with from the SF Board of Supervisors demanding that Mayor London Breed’s administration secure 7,000 hotel rooms to house the city’s homeless population during the COVID-19 outbreak.The measure passed unanimously, after weeks of jockeying between lawmakers and the mayor’s office about how best to protect homeless populations during the public health emergency.Thus far the city has opted to rent the rooms from hoteliers, at potentially great expense. City Controller Ben Rosenfield estimates that the bill for 7,000 rooms over 90 days, although it’s likely that federal disaster relief would cover more than half that sum.If hotels don’t want to play ball and Breed is willing to risk potential lawsuits, Herrera’s memo provides another way to secure housing in a hurry. The mayor has until April 26 to obtain enough rooms.Representing the kind of legal challenges SF might face, real estate lawyer Bryan Wenter alleging that although Breed et al. do indeed have extensive emergency powers right now in the memo “says nothing about what due process requires, much less acknowledges the existence of constitutional limits” on that authorityWhile a variety of national laws allow for the government to take private property, the U.S. Supreme Court has in the past overruled or narrowed the scope of such powers in certain rulings.

Filed under:City Attorney Dennis Herrera says there’s broad power to commandeer buildings and land during an emergencySan Francisco’s civic government can seize seemingly any privately-owned land or buildings as part of its effort to protect people from the COVID-19 outbreak.In fact, according to San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, there are few limits on what certain public office holders may do with private property .—a response to queries from unnamed parties at City Hall—Herrera explains the process for commandeering properties, and the rules by which SF must abide if it takes...

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SF mayor, county may seize private buildings for coronavirus relief

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