Resurrected Eviction Ban Whiplashes Courts, AZ Landlords
Download mp3 (1.33 MB)The expiration and reinstatement of the national eviction moratorium in the past week has given whiplash to people working in local justice courts.
Officials watched closely Monday to see if landlords moved quickly to reprocess existing eviction orders halted by the moratorium. Court staff also wanted to know if eviction case filings, which had fallen 50% during the pause, would start to go back up.
The CDC’s reinstatement of the moratorium late Tuesday, days after the order was allowed to expire, means answers are months away.
“We’re still kind of in that uncertainty. We don’t know how we’re going to dig out of all of this,” said Judge Anna Huberman, presiding Justice of the Peace in Maricopa County.
A statewide trade group of housing owners calls the reinstatement of the moratorium unacceptable and unconstitutional.
The Arizona Multihousing Association, which represents apartment complex owners and private home owners with only a few tenants, said it has members who are owed tens of thousands of dollars in rent.
President and CEO Courtney Gilstrap LeVinus said losing the income for 16 months has left some property owners facing foreclosure and others forced to sell. She blamed government interference by the CDC under President Biden.
“It is a major contributing factor to the rent increases we’re starting to see. And it’s really a supply and demand issue,” LeVinus said.
The group led by LeVinus estimates that Arizona has a more than 20,000 case backlog of applications for emergency rental aid that the government has been slow to pay out.
The moratorium continues through Oct. 3. In the meantime, Huberman said it’s paramount that renters facing eviction still attend court, which can be done telephonically.
