LOCKED DOWN AND OUT
Evictions could resume across U.S. as moratorium is lifted.
FROM WA-1 hasn’t paid rent in two years.”
Many landlords across the country welcomed a Supreme Court ruling late Thursday that struck down the most recent eviction moratorium rolled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The moratorium had extended earlier ones put in place in an attempt to help tenants losing jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many Pittsburgh landlords were hit with a surprise Friday morning when they tried to file evictions at various magistrate offices only to find out a moratorium still applies in Allegheny County until Oct. 31.
While the federal moratorium has ended, the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court on Aug. 6 approved a request by Judge Kim Berkley Clark, president judge of the 5th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, to extend Allegheny County’s moratorium until the end of October.
“What she did is not so much an extension of the federal moratorium as it is Allegheny County creating its own moratorium,” said Matthew S. Feinman, an independent Oakland-based real estate and landlordtenant lawyer.
The various eviction moratoriums were put in place to protect the most vulnerable renters from being displaced during the pandemic. Roughly 3.5 million people in the United States said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said the
CDC, which reimposed the federal moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization.
Following the high court’s ruling Thursday, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in Harrisburg is urging renters and landlords to pursue assistance available through Pennsylvania’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
“Pennsylvanians fearing eviction do not have to go through this alone,” said DHS acting secretary Meg Snead in a statement Friday. “ERAP funding is available for unpaid rent, future balances, and rehousing and relocation costs necessary to help you find a safe house, but you must apply now.”
The Wolf administration established the emergency program in partnership with the General Assembly to distribute $569 million to Pennsylvania households through partnerships with local leaders.
An additional $278 million in rental assistance was directly allocated to the state’s largest counties by the federal government, making a total of $847 million available to support renters and landlords under financial strain.
In light of the Supreme Court action to end the federal eviction moratorium, it’s unclear if Allegheny County’s moratorium will be extended when it runs out.
Landlords owed rent stand a chance of getting reimbursed if a renter who has fallen on hard times due to COVID-19 applies for rental assistance under the CARES Act. However, if a renter doesn’t apply for federal housing aid, landlords cannot either.
This week, a group of Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania introduced legislation aimed at preventing evictions and foreclosures while officials work to distribute federal relief funds to those in need. The Senate bill would require landlords to apply for relief through the state ERAP before filing to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent.
The program was set up this spring to help tenants catch up on rent payments and to help landlords get caught up on what they were owed, but the distribution of funds has taken time to ramp up.
Allegheny County was allocated $80 million for the most recent round of federal funding and had distributed $26.4 million as of Aug. 24.
Landlords don’t mind sharing their frustration with the current situation, and a number of small independent property owners across the county are ready to start the process to evict tenants who they say have taken advantage of the system.
“I have three who aren’t paying. And one of them I know for a fact is working, and the reason they aren’t paying is not lack of income,” said Brian Snyder, a McCandless-based real estate investor. He noted that renters on Section 8 are required to file regular financial reports to the Housing Authority to determine their co-pay.
One landlord in Bellevue said he has been unable to evict a tenant who leased a single- family home but never actually moved in, isn’t paying rent and is earning a side income by subletting the rooms to eight other unrelated people.
“That situation has been going on for a year and a half now,” said Taylor Takacs, president of the Acre of Pittsburgh real estate investors group.
Mr. Takacs said the water main broke at a McKees Rocks home in December 2020 owned by one of his group members, causing a $12,000 repair bill. At the time, the tenants had not paid rent in nine months, so the landlord had no money to make the repair.
“He told the renters they could either pay the plumber for the repair or leave,” Mr. Takacs said. “He took them to court, and the judge ruled in the tenants’ favor. The tenants continued living there without water.
“Meanwhile, they refuse to fill out the application for the CARES Act, which would give the landlord the money to fix the water line.”
Landlords owed rent stand a chance of getting reimbursed if a renter who has fallen on hard times due to COVID-19 applies for rental assistance under the CARES Act. However, if a renter doesn’t apply for federal housing aid, landlords cannot either.