Aside From Unemployment Benefits, North Carolina Residents Hope for Extension of State and Federal Bill Moratoriums

Just as federal unemployment benefits run out, bills that people have deferred will come due in the next few days as state and federal moratoriums end. 

That weekly supplement ends this week unless Congress votes to extend it. Also, a federal moratorium on evictions, which was included in the CARES Act, will end Saturday. And, next Wednesday, a state moratorium on having utilities shut off for failing to pay is scheduled to end as well. 

Chelsea Cook, a staff attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina, said there’s been a “huge uptick” in eviction cases filed since a state moratorium on evictions ended in June. She said more than 10,000 cases are pending.

“Folks who are already barely scraping by on their rent are not going to have any other options,” she said. “That’s going to be a lot of people on the street, and a huge public health crisis.” 

She said the federal moratorium that’s still in place for the rest of this week applies to about one-third of rental properties in North Carolina, and people could receive eviction notices by the end of this month with evictions taking place at the end of August.

“A moratorium in and of itself doesn’t do the trick. There’s just no way. With no money in the system, no increased ability of people to meet their obligations, then you just kick the crisis up the line. You have small landlords that can’t make it,” Rep. David Price (NC-4th) said, as he called for the moratorium to be extended.

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