End of eviction moratorium brings worry

Anxiety is high among tenants, landlords, and housing advocates as the midnight Saturday expiration date for the federal eviction moratorium looms, but what the end of the tenant protection will actually mean is uncertain…Andrea Park, a housing attorney for the Mass Law Reform Institute, said the federal moratorium was not a blanket ban on evictions, but allowed renters who met certain criteria such as having lost income due to the pandemic or being at risk for homelessness fill out a declaration that would protect them from eviction. Renters could still be taken to court if their landlord challenged the declaration, but even if the tenant lost the case they couldn’t be removed from the unit until the moratorium expired. “It’s going to be a lot of chaos in the courts,” Park said of the August 1 expiration. She predicts that landlords will be seeking permission to move forward with cases that were paused or to remove tenants whose evictions were approved by courts but who were previously shielded from action. Those landlords who held out on evictions due to procedural hurdles will likely go forward once the moratorium ends. Read more in Commonwealth Magazine.