EvIcTIoNS STARTING UP
Wave expected as ban ends in January
A tidal wave of evictions expected to rip millions of Americans from their homes when a federal ban expires at the end of the year has already started in Massachusetts and across the United States, advocates say.
“The wave is mounting,” state Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge, told the Herald last week.
Massachusetts’ Housing Court has seen eviction filings nearly double every week — for a total of 1,287 — since a state moratorium limiting removals expired on Oct. 17. Though many of those cases can’t move forward until a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order expires on Dec. 31, Connolly said that number doesn’t capture renters who leave on their own accord out of fear or unaware of their rights.
“It’s pretty alarming that lots of evictions are still, at least, being filed,” said Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project in Richmond, Va. Echoing Connolly’s concerns, Dunn said filings can prompt tenants to move out ahead of a hearing over fears that an eviction record would prevent them from renting another apartment.
Eviction filings have begun creeping up in several states, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University which found cities in South Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Virginia saw big jumps in October.
The CDC order has so far staved off the wave of evictions, housing advocates said, but as state and local eviction bans expire, outcomes are becoming increasingly varied.
Some judges in North Carolina and Missouri refused to accept the CDC’s directive, tenant advocates said. The order has been applied inconsistently, and some tenants, who had no legal representation, knew nothing about it. Landlords in several states have also sued, unsuccessfully, to scrap the order, arguing it was causing them financial hardship and infringed on property rights.
“Right now, we are seeing variations in the way courts are applying the CDC order, and we are also seeing a lack of knowledge among tenants and property owners,” said Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake Forest University and the chair of the American Bar Association’s
COVID-19 task force committee on evictions. “Advocates are working overtime to inform tenants of their rights under the CDC order and, in many places, evictions are going forward.”
Many tenants owe months of back rent. The global investment bank and advisory firm Stout estimates that by January, renters will owe as much as $34 billion.