Evictions begin as US ban ends, but not the spike feared

Long delayed evictions are rolling out more than a month after the end of a federal moratorium that had protected tenants, including some who hadn’t paid rent for many months because of the coronavirus pandemic

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Chandra Dobbs was stunned when the constable showed up on her doorstep with a fat packet of eviction papers. She thought she had more time.

“I didn’t think I was going to be evicted because I applied for rental assistance money,” Dobbs said a few days later. “But they didn’t want to wait the four to six weeks. So now we’re homeless - me, my 16-year-old son, my daughter and my grandchild, a toddler.”

Her confusion is a common theme across America at a time when the federal government has ended renter protections while doling out billions of dollars in rental assistance. Instead of the expected surge in evictions, many landlords are holding off, waiting for the federal money to come through.

But while a few jurisdictions bar landlords from evicting renters who have applied for the money, most do not.