Landlords, tenants fill courts as eviction moratorium ends
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Gabe Imondi, a 74-year-old landlord from Rhode Island, had come to court hoping to get his apartment back. He was tired of waiting for federal rental assistance and wondered aloud “what they’re doing with that money?”
Hours later, Luis Vertentes, in a different case, was told by a judge he had three weeks to clear out of his one-bedroom apartment in nearby East Providence. The 43-year-old landscaper said he was four months behind on rent after being hospitalized for a time.
“I’m going to be homeless, all because of this pandemic,” Vertentes said. “I feel helpless, like I can’t do anything even though I work and I got a full-time job.”
Scenes like this played out from North Carolina to Virginia to Ohio and beyond Monday as the eviction system, which saw a dramatic drop in cases before a federal moratorium expired over the weekend, rumbled back into action. Activists fear millions will be tossed onto the streets as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges.
The Biden administration allowed the federal moratorium to expire over the weekend and Congress was unable to extend it.
But on Tuesday the administration appeared to offer a reprieve for many. The government planned to put in place a new eviction moratorium that would protect areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives, according to three people familiar with the plans, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the forthcoming announcement.
The move followed protests from Democratic lawmakers over the swift end to the moratorium as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges.
Historic amounts of rental assistance allocated by Congress had been expected to avert a crisis. But the distribution has been painfully slow: Only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion had been distributed through June by states and localities. A second amount of $21.5 billion will go to the states.
More than 15 million people live in households that owe as much as $20 billion to their landlords, according to the Aspen Institute. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
In Columbus, Ohio, Chelsea Rivera showed up Monday at a Franklin County court after receiving an eviction notice last month. A single mom, she’s behind $2,988 in rent and late fees for the onebedroom apartment she rents for herself and three young sons.
The 27-year-old said she started to struggle after her hours were cut in May at the Walmart warehouse where she worked. She’s applied to numerous agencies for help but they’re either out of money, have a waiting list, or not able to help until clients end up in court with an eviction notice.
Rivera said she’s preparing herself mentally to move into a shelter with her children.
“We just need help,” she said, fighting back tears. “It’s just been really hard with everyday issues on top of worrying about where you’re going to live.”
But there was more optimism in Virginia, where Tiara Burton, 23, learned she would be getting federal help and wouldn’t be evicted. She initially feared the worst when the moratorium lifted.
“That was definitely a worry yesterday,” said Burton, who lives in Virginia Beach. “If they’re going to start doing evictions again, then I’m going to be faced with having to figure out where me and my family are going to go. And that’s not something that anyone should have to worry about these days at all.”
She was relieved to learn she was approved for assistance through the Virginia Rent Relief Program. Her court hearing was postponed 30 days, during which time she and her landlord can presumably work things out.