What Happens When the Eviction Bans End?

Courts in Virginia resumed hearing eviction cases on May 18. Other courts in Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and 13 other states (including Virginia) have also resumed hearing eviction cases.

The end of state eviction moratoriums has exposed the limits of the protections for tenants at the local, state, and federal levels.

Most of the eviction cases going forward now predate the coronavirus pandemic, a reflection of the severity of the eviction crisis in what we now call normal times. 

Many of those tenants have since lost their jobs; probably some have suffered an infection or lost family members to Covid-19. Or they live in properties covered by the CARES Act — but those protections don’t apply retroactively.

“We’ve been telling people: You need to pay the rent when you can. There’s going to be a day of reckoning,” says Mark Grandich, litigation director at Lone Star Legal Aid.

Read more.