AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court extended a moratorium on housing evictions until May 18, giving the state’s residents a little more breathing room during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Housing advocates supported the decision, though they said they remain concerned about people being thrown out into the street after May.
“Our state and cities should not stop there,” Christina Rosales, deputy director of the advocacy group Texas Housers,” told the Texas Tribune in an email. “We have to make sure that cities and the state are providing protections for renters, such as an opportunity to catch up on back-rent and citations for landlords who are breaking the law by locking out tenants during this time.”
Trials, hearings and other eviction procedures are suspended, but landlords can still file for an eviction, the Tribune report noted.
The federal government likewise temporarily halted foreclosures until Aug. 23. That action involves properties in which federally financed mortgages – notably FHA and VA loans –are repaid.
Some renters and home owners are reeling from the financial devastation of being laid off from their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, unemployment claims have escalated and reached historic highs in Texas. From March 8 through May 16, more than 1.9 million Texans applied for unemployment insurance, more than in all of 2019.
Previous to the crisis, housing affordability was already a problem in areas of the state for low-income residents, the Tribune report said.
Despite the orders to cease evictions temporarily, some landlords reportedly attempted to lock tenants out of their homes. According to KSAT-TV, about 50 residents of a San Antonio apartment complex were locked out. The state’s Property Code prohibits evictions without a legal procedure.
“This is the first flagrant violation we’ve had, and we've asked the district attorney and other law enforcement to look into it and see what options we have against the company who did that,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told KSAT.
Texas Public Radio later reported the property manager said that only 18 people had been locked out and that most were suspected of drug dealing or were behind on rent going back to February.
Judge Rogelio Lopez extended the eviction moratorium for Bexar County until June 1.
The state’s eviction hiatus doesn’t suspend rent payments. Rosales said officials need to plan for what might happen when the moratorium is lifted.
“We have to make sure there's enough emergency aid to avoid the financial shock of two or three months of rent due all at once in order to keep people in their homes,” she said.
