In California’s Alameda County, filings topped 500 in May, compared to 65 in April before the ban ended. Nationwide, eviction filings have come roaring back since the bans ended - to more than 50% higher than the pre-pandemic average in many cities, according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, which tracks filings in three dozen cities and 10 states. They said low-income residents are still struggling from the pandemic and need protections from ruthless landlords. Moratorium backers called the bans a lifesaver that kept countless families housed and off the streets. Tenants must start paying rent in August in most cases, but cannot be evicted for back rent if their financial hardship was caused by the pandemic. “There is nothing natural, ethical or even humane about that.”Īlameda County let its moratorium expire at the end of April. “There is nothing natural about being forced to house and have people live in your property for over three years and not pay,” said Michelle Hailey, who is also Black and owns a triplex where both her tenants stopped paying. Unlike large corporate landlords, these small-property owners said they didn’t have the means to evict, and were eaten up by worry. They scolded elected leaders for allowing tenants to self-certify that their inability to pay was tied to the pandemic. Many of the landlords were Black, like Haile, or Asian American, and they said the eviction bans had saddled them with debt and foreclosure worries while their tenants, who have jobs, live rent-free. While it’s more common to see tenants converging on city halls in California to demand greater protections, in Oakland and surrounding Alameda County small-property landlords staged protests earlier this year demanding an end to the moratoriums. Most expired long ago, but not in Oakland or neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley, all places where rents and rates of homelessness are high. at the start of the pandemic in 2020 to prevent displacement and curb the spread of the coronavirus. “Dealing with this whole thing gets me so upset.”Įviction moratoriums were put in place across the U.S. “It’s unbelievable and it’s like, how can they have the nerve to just let something like this happen? If this happened to them, how would they feel?” Haile said of her tenants.
Moreover, the tenants have trashed her house and it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to make it habitable, she says. The 69-year-old estimates she is owed more than $60,000 in back rent, money she doubts she will ever see.
The eviction moratorium in the San Francisco Bay Area city expires next month and Haile can’t wait.
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