Gov. Cooper to extend NC eviction moratorium as COVID cases surge
North Carolina residents facing eviction will get an extension until Jan. 31, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday.
Cooper instituted the current eviction moratorium by executive order Oct. 28. That order, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nationwide moratorium, was set to end on New Year’s Eve, the same as the CDC order.
“This holiday season, too many families are struggling to pay rent as the pandemic surges,” Cooper said in a news release. “As the first of the month approaches and rent becomes due, I wanted people to know that we plan to extend the moratorium on evictions.”
The details have yet to be determined and Cooper’s extension will be based on how or whether Congress extends the CDC order, according to the release.
The extension of the moratorium comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations and the average of new cases over the last seven days in North Carolina hit a new high.
As of Wednesday, 6,360 people in the state have died due to the virus. That’s an increase of over 1,000 since the beginning of December.
On Dec. 11, state Chief Justice Cheri Beasley suspended all in-person, non-essential cases from taking place in state courthouses for 30 days because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, eviction hearings also haven’t been scheduled.
Evictions in North Carolina have led to some COVID-19 cases, according to a study earlier this month from public health experts at academic institutions across the country.
From June 20 to Sept. 3, when no moratorium was in place, evictions in the state resulted in 15,690 coronavirus cases and 304 deaths, The N&O reported.
In that time, landlords filed evictions against 18,000 tenants in North Carolina, The N&O reported in September.
Up to 410,000 households in the state are at risk of eviction and unable to pay rent, according to report from WRAL last month.
By January, there could be 240,000 eviction filings and a collective sum of unpaid rent of over $800 million across the state, WRAL reported.
The state of the federal moratorium extension
The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate passed a $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus Monday. In that bill, the CDC order was extended until Jan. 31.
But President Donald Trump criticized that bill on Tuesday, calling it a “disgrace.”
The stimulus provides stimulus checks of $600 per person. Trump said the checks should be for $2,000 per person.
The president also criticized spending in the part of the bill that funds the federal budget through the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30 next year.
Trump did not explicitly say he would veto the bill, but as of Wednesday afternoon he has yet to sign it, which would make the bill become law.
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Twitter that the party is prepared to bring the $2,000 check proposal to a vote on the House floor this week.
Criticism of CDC order
The CDC instituted its eviction moratorium in September. That ban did not include any rental assistance, limiting landlords’ ability to recoup any losses from unpaid rent.
Dustin Engelken with the Triangle Apartment Association, which serves the apartment industry in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, called eviction moratoriums a band aid solution in an interview with The N&O on Monday when asked about the COVID-19 stimulus passed through Congress.
Engelken said that the best solution for all parties is to make tenants financially independent again.
“The solution to this entire situation is getting people vaccinated, getting people back to work, hopefully putting a large amount of people in a position where they can pay their own rent moving forward,” Engelken said.
If signed by Trump, the COVID-19 stimulus could provide nearly $700 million to North Carolina in rental assistance. Engelken said this aid helps in the short term.
“This is a good development. But I’m afraid we’re going to be right back asking for more pretty quickly because it’s not going to be enough to meet all the need,” Engelken said.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 4:23 PM.