A woman in Maricopa County, Arizona, speaks to a constable delivering an eviction order in October 2020. Fortunately, she was able to stay in her home. Nationally, millions of renters are being evicted despite government moratoriums.
Photo by John Moore, courtesy Getty Images
In mid-June, the Clark family in Columbus, Ohio, was facing eviction from their home. April Clark went to the Columbus Urban League for help. Soon after she filed the necessary paperwork, a check was drawn up for $5,400 to cover first and last month’s rent and a security deposit on another home for the family, according to Monica Womack, MPA, the league’s associate vice president. The family was in their new home by July.
Across America, millions of renters are receiving eviction notices, as the COVID-19 pandemic causes job loss and unexpected expenses, leaving individuals and families financially struggling. Government agencies are overwhelmed by the need.
To bring aid, many local and state governments beginning in 2020 passed eviction moratoriums to help renters financially impacted by COVID-19 stay in their homes and prevent virus spread. In September 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a nationwide moratorium, and in summer it was extended until Oct. 3. For the first six months of the federal moratorium, U.S. evictions declined by 50%, according to Eviction Lab, an eviction database run by Princeton University. Research has also shown that eviction bans have prevented COVID-19 spread.
But while the Clark family and others have benefited from government programs, other eligible individuals and families have been left out.
Landlords have continued filing court evictions during the pandemic. In Columbus, over 17,000 eviction notices were filed between March 2020 and early August 2021, Eviction Lab reports. Landlords are also evicting tenants without court approval.
This year, tens of billions of dollars designated by the American Rescue Act for pandemic rental assistance was allocated to states. Ohio received over $1 billion, but as of Aug. 1, only about $500 million had been distributed, state records show.
Qualifying for rental assistance can be difficult, and demand is high. The Columbus league averages 180 to 200 calls a day from people facing eviction. As of mid-August, the league had 825 applications to review.
Most evictions in Columbus involve people of color, and the league concentrates on helping those populations.
“COVID-19 exposed the layers of disparities that already existed in the country for Black and brown people,” Stephanie Hightower, the league’s president and CEO, told The Nation’s Health. “This is going to impact a couple generations moving forward.”
In Maryland, the situation is similarly dire. The state received over $400 million in the first round of federal rental assistance, state records show. But evictions continue at a high rate, and rental assistance in August remained significantly backlogged. Some people who had applied in February for rental assistance through the Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore and were approved still had not received checks, said Carisa Hatfield, JD, a housing attorney at the project.
“Folks are panicked about what is going to come next, and whether they will still be housed in a week or a month or two months,” Hatfield told The Nation’s Health.
The federal eviction moratorium is allowing more time for people to acquire rental aid. But its particulars are open to interpretation by jurisdictions, Hatfield said. Maryland has adopted the “affirmative defense” interpretation, meaning a tenant being evicted can argue against an eviction based on the federal order to dismiss or postpone payment. The court usually enters a reserve judgment, meaning the federal moratorium is upheld until Oct. 3.
But other moratorium interpretations are less friendly to renters, and local measures sometimes give landlords the edge.
In Baltimore, a landlord does not have to accept rental assistance payments from a tenant under eviction. Also, state law allows landlords to evict tenants who have a one-year lease with a 90-day notice, or fewer days for shorter leases, allowing landlords to evict despite the moratorium.
“Our system is not built to benefit tenants,” Hatfield said. “It is built to benefit landlords. Building systems that benefit tenants is really what the goal should be long-term.”
For more information on the federal eviction moratorium, visit www.cdc.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
