SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom today issued an executive order extending authorization for local governments to halt evictions for renters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, through July 28.
The order also addresses a variety of issues in response to the pandemic, by extending the waiver permitting the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow for mail-in renewals of driver’s licenses and identification cards, and waiving certain programmatic and administrative requirements that restrict child care and afterschool programs from serving children of essential infrastructure workers.
In addition, the order allows individuals enrolled in teacher preparation programs during the 2019-20 school year to obtain their preliminary credential without a teaching performance assessment, if the individual was unable to complete that requirement due to a COVID-19 school closure. Under the order, individuals otherwise eligible to obtain certain teaching or education specialist credentials or enroll in teacher preparation programs are permitted to do so without passing certain assessments, for which testing was suspended due to the statewide stay-at-home order.
The order includes provisions requiring the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to waive certain regulations governing administration of Emergency Services Grant funding received under the CARES Act, develop alternative streamlined procedures, and implement reasonable accommodations for HCD-funded projects that have been negatively affected by the pandemic, to help ensure project feasibility. The order also suspends statutory set-asides for economic development and housing for Community Development Block Grant program funding received under the CARES Act.