Another crisis in Florida: Evictions

2,600 filed since April — with thousands more on the way — will take effect if Gov. DeSantis doesn’t extend moratorium

With more than 2,600 evictions waiting to be processed in courts across Florida, a harbinger of the waves of residents who could soon lose their homes, housing advocacy groups are demanding that the governor once again extend the statewide eviction and foreclosure moratorium and provide funding for rental assistance programs.

Veronica Lucha, an Orlando resident who spoke during a call with the Miami Workers Center, a progressive group that supports low-income people of color, said the moratorium should be extended until at least the end of the year.

She said her family is one of the thousands that received an eviction notice from their apartment complex in March after her husband tested positive for COVID-19 and could not work for several months.

“We need a real break to get up to date with all of our payments,” she said in Spanish through a translator. “We’re only beginning to recover.”

The July 1 expiration date of the moratorium, which was first issued April 2 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, approaches even as unemployment in Florida remains at record highs and at least 130,000 people are still waiting to have their unemployment claims verified.

More than a third of adults in Florida have reported that they missed last month’s rent or mortgage payment, or said they won’t be able to pay next month’s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse Survey, a snapshot of the toll the virus has had on communities that’s released every week. Nearly half also said they lost employment, and one in eight said their households at times didn’t have enough food to eat in the last week.