'Hoping The Number Is Lower Than It Would Have Been' — How New Eviction Moratorium May Impact Arizona Renters
Download mp3 (9.98 MB)The Biden administration has extended the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction moratorium, just a few days after it expired over the weekend.
The new ban on evictions is set to last for 60 days and applies in counties with high or substantial COVID-19 transmission; all 15 counties in Arizona meet those criteria.
Local court officials say metro Phoenix saw typical eviction activity Monday after the earlier moratorium expired, with 71 new cases filed.
While July eviction filings in Arizona's largest county were up from the same month last year, they were still off from July 2019, said Scott Davis, spokesman for the Maricopa County Justice Courts.
The extension comes after many progressives pressured the administration to extend the moratorium, arguing letting it expire would lead to millions of Americans losing their homes.
Others, though, have criticized the move.
In a statement, the head of the Arizona Multihousing Association points out a fraction of the rental assistance the state got has been given out, and says: “This extension could well be a death blow for many mom-and-pop rental owners, who have struggled to pay their bills while receiving no rent for a year and a half and counting.”
To learn what this extension might mean for Arizona renters, The Show spoke with Pamela Bridge, an attorney and the director of Litigation and Advocacy at Community Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
