diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index d246c68..61803a4 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 author = OpenStack
 author-email = openstack-discuss@lists.openstack.org
 home-page = https://docs.openstack.org/tempest/latest/
-requires-python = >=3.6
+python-requires = >=3.6
 classifier =
     Intended Audience :: Information Technology
     Intended Audience :: System Administrators
diff --git a/tempest/common/waiters.py b/tempest/common/waiters.py
index b547cc6..e242301 100644
--- a/tempest/common/waiters.py
+++ b/tempest/common/waiters.py
@@ -124,6 +124,12 @@
             raise lib_exc.DeleteErrorException(
                 "Server %s failed to delete and is in ERROR status" %
                 server_id)
+        if server_status == 'SOFT_DELETED':
+            # Soft-deleted instances need to be forcibly deleted to
+            # prevent some test cases from failing.
+            LOG.debug("Automatically force-deleting soft-deleted server %s",
+                      server_id)
+            client.force_delete_server(server_id)
 
         if int(time.time()) - start_time >= client.build_timeout:
             raise lib_exc.TimeoutException