Housing advocates ask Ducey to extend halt on evictions
With no end to crisis in sight, call is made for moratorium to continue to year’s end
As COVID-19 cases soar in Arizona, thousands of Arizona renters face potential eviction in a few weeks.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s moratorium on the eviction of tenants hurt by COVID-19 is scheduled to expire on July 22.
Arizona landlords, who have held off on evictions because of the moratorium, could file to oust as many as 5,000 renters in Maricopa County by the end of the month, according to a survey of landlords.
And, as a startling new study shows, the number of evictions in the state could skyrocket by the end of September.
In a letter to Ducey, housing advocates ask to extend the moratorium until the end of the year. Federal CARES Act funding must be spent by then.
Maricopa County, Phoenix and Mesa are using tens of millions of dollars of that federal funding to help struggling residents pay their rent and utilities.
“The CARES Act funding is just getting into the community to assist tenants and landlords,” said Cynthia Zwick, executive director of Wildfire, an Arizona group working to end poverty. “We are working to expedite programs to help but are worried the money won’t get to people as quickly as they need it.”
Steep eviction cliff
The looming end of the moratorium isn’t the only reason evictions are expected to climb in Arizona.
With more than 250,000 Arizonans filing for unemployment, it is easy to see how more tenants could fall into rental debt by August if they remain out of work and see their weekly unemployment checks drop to $240 or less after the
weekly $600 federal benefit runs out at the end of July.
Record unemployment filings are a big reason a Washington, D.C., think tank is projecting hundreds of thousands of renters in Arizona could be at risk of losing their homes at the end of September.
The Aspen Institute estimates more than 577,000 renters across the state will be at risk of eviction in less than four months.
Nationally, the number of renters who could lose their homes is about 20 million, based on 44 million people filing for unemployment in June, according to the think tank.
An analysis of the Aspen Institute data by the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law estimates the cost of those evictions could eventually climb to more than $3 billion across the state because of the long-term money needed for homeless shelters, emergency health care and child welfare.
Renter and landlord help needed now
Beyond extending the eviction moratorium, other aid is necessary to avoid a cliff.
Arizona launched a $5 million rental assistance program in March designed to pay landlords up to $2,000 per month for each eligible renter who applied for help.
There’s plenty of money left in the fund, but critics say it’s taking too long to get it to landlords who could end up evicting tenants in a few weeks.
Last week, a $100 million fund to help quickly build more affordable housing for Arizona’s rapidly growing population of homeless and low-income residents launched with the help of Medicaid and other health care providers.
The Home Matters Arizona Fund already has drawn $37 million in grants and project financing to help develop at least some of the nearly 200,000 affordable homes needed now in the state. And the plan is for the projects receiving the funds to include other much-needed services,