What may come once the eviction moratorium ends next month?

Organizations supporting landlords and tenants weigh in.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

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(Kipp Ortenburger) Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our state has issued and extended eviction moratoriums amidst public safety and economic concerns and to await much needed relief and resolution for tenants and landlords alike.

Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts predicted the potential for an eviction tsunami hitting a large percentage of rental households.

In fact, in July of 2020, Nevada's own Kenny Guinn Center reported that as many as 300,000 Nevadans could be at risk of eviction.

Well, since then the state has established new policy and rental assistance programs from federal and state relief and extended the moratorium to lessen the wave of evictions.

But come May 31, all signs point to the state eviction moratorium finally lifting.

On this week's show, we'll get the perspectives from both tenants and landlords on how these efforts throughout the pandemic have hopefully lessened the wave.

We'll also discuss further planning and actions needed once the moratorium is lifted, and finally, this hasn't been the first time Southern Nevada has confronted a potential eviction tsunami, and it might not be the last.

Our panel will discuss long-term solutions that may help us better weather a future crisis.

Please welcome Susy Vasquez, executive director of the Nevada State Apartment Association; Quentin Savwoir, deputy director at Make It Work Nevada, and Jim Berchtold, directing attorney for the Consumer Rights Project at the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

Welcome so much to Nevada Week.

We really appreciate having you here.

I want to jump right into our first discussion topic.

Now until the state moratorium expires on May 31, where are we headed?

And I want to go first to just why we have this moratorium extension, this last moratorium extension here.

Governor Sisolak has said the key reason is it is a way to allow more time for backlog rental assistance programs to disperse relief.

That is the reason, and Jim, I want to come to you first.

Give us an idea.

What evidence do we have out there that we are improving on that backlog or potentially not improving on that backlog?

(Jim Berchtold) Well, first let me say, Kipp, that I think Governor Sisolak really needs to be extended a big thank you for extending the moratorium as he did.

There was an article just yesterday, actually, in U.S. News on the benefit of the moratoriums and slowing the eviction-- sorry, slowing the COVID spread.

This study showed that for every 1% increase in evictions, there's actually a 4% increase in positivity.

So the moratorium has been hugely effective.

Now the goal is to try and get as much done as we can before the moratorium expires and then to figure out what's going to happen once the moratorium is gone.

What does that look like, and how do we get the rental assistance into the hands of the landlords and into the hands of the tenants?

So that's going to be a big project, but I think multiple parties, the county, the courts, nonprofits, are all working together to try to make that happen.

So I'm positive it will be effective.

-Will be effective, but yet we only have about a month left until the moratorium ends.

I mean, do you have any evidence that we are able to release some of that backlog and tenants are able to get some of that rental relief right now?

-Right.

So one of the problems has been every time the federal government changes the requirements, first there was the CARES Act, and then there was an appropriations bill, now there's the American Recovery Plan.

So every time the federal government has changed those requirements, Clark County has had to kind of retool its process.

So right now we are meeting on a weekly basis as is the courts, Clark County and the justice court judges, all to try to figure out how best to get this rolling out.

Clark County is incredibly-- from my impression, Clark County is incredibly motivated to make this happen.

So what we're seeing is there are real efforts on their part to bring in additional people to process these applications, so there is going to be a major effort from now until the moratorium lifts to try to focus on the evictions that are currently in the court system-- those would likely be the first ones to go forward once the moratorium lifts-- to hopefully clear those out, get rental assistance dollars into the hands of the landlords, and to the tenants, and then put a process in place to expedite going forward once the moratorium is gone.

So hopefully the more evictions that we can get out of that pipeline, the better off we're all going to be.

-We'll come back to that expedited process in just a second.

Susy, I want to get the landlord perspective too on just where you see relief, and are you seeing any release of this backlog?

(Susy Vasquez) I also want to echo Jim's efforts-- or recognition of the eviction moratorium.

We truly understand its purpose.

We truly understand that definitely the rent assistance programs needed extra time to get this money out, and we're hoping to start seeing some funding come from the CHAP program.

I know other rent assistance programs are starting to roll.

We are starting to see that assistance, and truly it is what we needed to see in order to ease a lot of concern that we're seeing, not only from the landlord side but from the resident side as well.

-Quentin, I want to come to you.

Make It Work Nevada represents persons of color, particularly one of the focuses is women of color here.

Can you give us an idea of some of the barriers that you are seeing working with the populations that an organization like yours is working with?

(Quentin Savwoir) Absolutely.

A lot of the barriers that our community members are facing and the families that we work alongside is the bottleneck and the retooling that Clark County is having to do as it relates to the CHAP rental assistance.

We have at least a dozen families now that are still waiting for assistance, who are still trying to navigate, staying in their units, protecting themselves and their families by ensuring that they have a roof over their head.

Some of my activist friends who work at other organizations have commented that the status for applications, that particular provision on the Clark County website had been down in recent days, and that has been something that's been pretty consistent over the last year and a half where the website is functioning one day just fine, another day it's down.

And then notwithstanding the high learning curve it takes to walk folks through that process.

While it seems very commonplace for us to hop online and fill out an application online, it's not as commonplace for most folks, particularly some of the families that we work alongside.

So that continues to be a barrier.

Furthermore, it bears mentioning that it's really embarrassing for folks to admit that they need help, right?

So getting folks to the point of even admitting that they need assistance has been a challenge for us.

Helping them understand there's power in numbers, that this pandemic was not of their own doing, that their inability to pay rent is not of their own doing, because our families are hardworking folks.

These are folks that don't want to need to seek assistance, but because of the state of the world and the uncertainty of our future, they're having to ask for assistance.

So for one, having to get through and get over just articulating the need for help, and then navigating the bureaucracy associated with getting help, and that is being met with the bottleneck, the lack of infrastructure at Clark County to process the assistance, and so on.

-Jim, let's go to you specifically on exactly what Quentin is saying here, that there's some maybe reticence to ask for help.

Of course Legal Aid of Southern Nevada is an agency that is providing that help.

Are you seeing that as a potential barrier?

-Oh, absolutely.

I think we're facing a couple of things.

One is just a general lack of information.

It has been extremely difficult throughout the entire pandemic to get accurate information into the hands of tenants, and then on top of that, there are the technology barriers and the barriers in whether it's responding to an eviction notice, the complicated process of filing with the court or the complicated process of submitting a CHAP application.

One of the things that Clark County is working on right now is actually to partner with nonprofits, select nonprofits in the community, who can actually handhold the applicant through that process, who will actually reach out to the applicant and say, this is how you do it.

I need your documents, give me your documents.

I will upload them for you.

I will figure-- I will help you figure out how to submit this application, because that is absolutely a barrier.

-Let's talk specifically about mediation here too.

Jim, I bring that up because when we had you on the last show, that was such a big part of the conversation then, trying to get some resolution and agreement between landlords and tenants.

Of course we've seen policy that was enacted during our special legislative session last summer related to that.

And Susy, I want to go to you.

Let's get the landlord's perspective here.

Where is resolution?

Do we have a lot of tenants and landlords that right now are in some form of agreement that will then prolong or potentially eliminate the risk of eviction?

-You know, in October of last year, we had reported 57% of our residents were in some form of payment arrangement and, you know, we have been so thankful for those many residents that do reach out and continue to keep us in the loop.

We continue to revise payment arrangements based on their circumstances, if they go back to work and then again lose hours and aren't able to meet those payment arrangements.

You know, for once and ever I think we are on the same side when it comes to wanting to ensure that residents are able to pay their rent.

So communication continues to be vital in these times, but we are seeing a decrease in the communication between our residents.

We're now reporting 15% of our residents are in some form of payment arrangement.

Now, you have to understand that there was a significant amount of rent assistance that was sent out and distributed at the end of last year, so that did help with many people that were in a payment arrangement.

But I think there's been a lot of focus from our residents thinking they're going to again be approved for rent assistance because they were approved last year, but that may not be the case.

So we're trying to educate them and make them understand that because you were approved doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be approved because there are now income restrictions and trying to open up those payment arrangement opportunities again.

-That is a significant drop.

That might be a concern, but maybe let me put a little positive spin on it.

In July of 2020, Pew Research reported that one in three renters had little or no confidence in their ability to pay rent.

Our unemployment rate at that time in the state was over 30%.

Of course our unemployment rate has reduced significantly.

We're now at 8%.

And so Susy, I have to ask you, do you think-- and Jim, I want to get your perspective also on this-- do we think maybe there's just more renter confidence now, so there's just not as many people that are engaging in this because they feel confident they're going to be able to pay rent when the moratorium ends?

Susy, let's get your perspective first.

-Certainly we are seeing more people go back to work, and people are either able to pay a full rent payment or close to it is extensive.

But what we're not seeing is those people that truly do need the help getting the help that they need.

We're here, just as other advocates are for tenants, to have them utilize our services in our office as far as, you know, getting their applications completed and scanning documents over to them so they're able to upload them into the system, or if they need us to do it, we're there to help them as well.

You know, landlords have been struggling for quite some time.

We have taken a significant loss to income, so to be able to, you know, turn these units over if these people do end up moving is also on our minds significantly right now.

-Jim, let's get your perspective as well.

-I think that mediation numbers can be a little misleading, so you have to remember the way that people get into mediation is by way of eviction.

So the eviction process starts, and the court will set a mediation.

Well, if the moratorium is in place, no eviction, no mediations are being set unless those cases are the worst of the worst.

So a reduction in resolutions through the mediation program actually doesn't surprise me that much.

But the idea for the mediation program hopefully will be to retool it so that when the moratorium lifts, that will be a primary tool to link people with rental assistance, get those dollars into the hands of landlords and avoid those evictions.

So the Nevada Supreme Court actually just issued an administrative order extending that mediation because that was scheduled to sunset, extending it so that as long as there is rental assistance, that program will exist and try to help to distribute it.

So we have big hopes for it in the first place.

So hopefully, once the rental assistance starts flowing, that will be the case.

-So Susy and Jim, both of you are expressing that when the moratorium ends on May 31, this tsunami of evictions that we are hearing reported here, it might not happen but also that this isn't just a-- this is the deadline and now evictions start.

There are tools and processes in place to still mediate, and there are still a lot of solutions on the table.

Quentin, I want to come to you.

Let's talk about the impact of an eviction though on an individual tenant.

Give us some context on what that means particularly for a household of color.

-Well, at Make It Work Nevada, we organize black women and black families, because we know that if we can break free of all the forms of oppression for that group of people, then we will free everyone.

Black women are most likely to be evicted in this country, and that eviction stays on their record as a scarlet letter, and when they seek shelter or a home somewhere else, it pushes them further away from the basic amenities that any family would need to have whole, full thriving lives.

It pushes them further away from schools, grocery stores, healthcare clinics, pharmacies and so on.

Not withstanding the fact that in this pandemic, many of the families that we are working alongside have had to also learn how to be stay-at-home teachers.

So in the face of a summary eviction, families are scrambling with where am I going to go while wrestling with their kids about distance learning and trying to figure out how they get them connected to Wi-Fi so their kids can maintain some sense of stability and normality.

So it looks really grim on the ground because we are still having families put out of their homes.

Just yesterday we had a family that even though they turned in their CDC declaration form, the constable was at their house to lock them out.

These stories are very commonplace for us.

I'm not seeing the silver lining that's also been talked about here because the process that many of the families we're working with, how they're getting evicted is through that summary eviction process, that process where no one has-- the landlord doesn't have to go to court initially.

Families are intimidated.

They know that they can't pay or they're waiting for CHAP to come through, but it doesn't come through in enough time and then they're sleeping in their cars.

So on the ground, it feels almost as grim as it was a year ago.

Yes, we are seeing some families go back to work, but it's not nearly in the same capacity that they were pre-COVID.

-And you bring up a good point.

Summary evictions, of course we had legislation that was being proposed that did not go through related to summary evictions, but yet there is a bill, AB61 is what I'm referring to, a bill was revised and an amendment was put in place to at least do a study.

How important, Quentin, is that specific study to specifically what you're talking about, the future of where evictions are going?

-It's absolutely important.

It's the most important study.

It's such a unique process in Nevada, and I really want to dispel this misnomer that ending this process would be a "sky is falling" scenario.

What it would do would be more balance the scales in this state between landlords and tenants.

Nowhere else in the country can you go and have the summary eviction process play out.

I'm not a lawyer, I wish I played one on TV, but it would seem as though that process is wholly unconstitutional because you're putting the burden on the tenant to know to go to court, figure out what process they need to file, which in this case would be file an answer.

At our organization we're starting to produce literature to give to our community members so they know how to do that, but no one else is providing insight as to how one can file an answer.

So the study is imperative because it will reveal what we know.

It will reveal who it's hurting, it will reveal the families that it's damaged, and it will bring more parity to the dynamics between landlords and tenants in this state, and I think that's incredibly important for the future of our recovery.

-Susy, I want to get your perspective on this as well, and let's talk-- I think in context here, the impact of an eviction on a landlord as well.

This is national data here, but the Brookings Institute has reported that 40% of rental properties are owned by individual landlords, the mom and pops, the small businesses here.

Can you give us some context on how an eviction then could impact, does impact that population?

-Unfortunately, the country hasn't-- it's not the first time that we've been in this situation.

So after 9/11, after the Great Recession, the market did take some time to understand that people that were applying to move into apartments that had been foreclosed on or had been evicted were the primary source of prospects, so the market did set aside and not look to those issues on a person's credit for some time until people were able to reestablish themselves.

I'm not going to say it was seven years because that wouldn't be true, but I can tell you that the market will, to an extent, understand what everyone has gone through during this pandemic.

I also appreciate the study because I think it will bring to light some potential solutions in the future and would also give us some time to ramp up resources that would be needed in order to convert to a different summary eviction process.

-Let's talk specifically about after May 31.

We've already talked about some of the tools that we already have in place to maybe ease some of the evictions so we don't see the tsunami.

Let's look at what potentially municipal policy, state policy, even federal policy at this stage, Susy, past May 31 if we are seeing somewhat of a wave of evictions.

What are some of the solutions that you've earmarked you think we can do?

-The struggle right now is that we're going to be faced with evictions, but we're also faced with a huge influx of people from other states that are coming here because according to them, it's more affordable to live in Nevada than it is in surrounding areas.

So there's a huge demand for housing right now in Nevada not only from current residents but also from those that are moving in.

It'll be interesting to see how the market handles that.

Obviously we are going to be well aware of people that will have evictions on their record.

We're hoping that AB141, with the sealing of evictions, will go through and offer some relief to many, and in current statute, residents are able to seal their evictions as of right now under current statute.

So they can go to the courts and ask for that eviction sealing.

I know people have been, and they've been granted just based on the tenant declaration.

I'm not boots on the ground, but I have heard from some of our landlords that those eviction sealings are happening.

So I think that getting the word out there from Legal Aid and the tenant advocates that that resource is available to them now, and hopefully AB141 again providing more relief for people that did experience evictions through the pandemic.

-Jim, let's get your perspective from the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

Of course AB141 was already mentioned, the sealing of these records is so important, but what else do we need to keep top of mind right now?

-Well, let me circle back to Quentin's point for a minute.

In saying that we are working on hopeful-- tools that will hopefully stem the eviction crisis, I am in no way trying to minimize the fact that there will be an eviction crisis.

Right now, every day, we have hundreds and hundreds of tenants calling us who are desperate and don't know what to do.

It has been a struggle for the past year, and it will continue to be a struggle and once the moratorium lifts, we are facing a potential tsunami of evictions.

So everything that we can do to try to stem the flow of those evictions we need to do, whether that's mediation, whether that's pop-ups helping tenants file answers and apply for rental assistance.

We are exploring everything we can think of right now, because if tenants start being evicted, there is 100 millions of dollars of rental assistance that will not be able to be used because once that tenant is out of that property, they no longer qualify for rental assistance.

So if that money is not allocated and spent and given to the landlords and tenants to stop those evictions, that money goes back to the federal government.

That would be a travesty to have people become homeless, people lose their homes, while there is a pot of money sitting there.

So do not think that I am minimizing this in any way.

We are experiencing it every day.

It is a huge issue.

-Let's talk more context on how big of an issue this could be.

I go back to July of 2020.

Local policy research here, Guinn Center reported there could be as many as 250,000 Clark County residents at risk.

Of course again I refer to the unemployment rate at that time was 30%.

We have had a lot of provisions, extended moratoriums of course and some policy, and of course the relief as we mentioned.

With that said, Jim, can you give us some context on for one thing, how much we've already had secured in relief and how big of a problem this could be, and how many households we might have that are at risk of eviction come May 31.

-So the numbers have varied a little bit.

The Guinn Center probably has the most reliable numbers, and their numbers estimate up to 200,000 households could be facing eviction when the moratorium lifts.

That would be a disaster for the state.

This state does not have the infrastructure, the resources, the safety net to help that many people.

That is why we have to slow to the greatest extent possible that flow of evictions, to hook the landlords up with that rental assistance and get those evictions out of the pipeline.

That's the only way we're going to get through this crisis, because the worst thing we can do is just start evicting people.

-Susy, I want to go to you really quick, we only have about 30 seconds, but all roads seem to point to an extension of the moratorium could have some benefits here.

Our state has been very clear that we will not have that moratorium extension.

Do you see any wiggle room there at all?

-Potentially anything's possible right now, right?

But I don't see an eviction moratorium being extended at the state level.

I wouldn't be surprised to see one at the federal level only because nationally, we were expecting an extension through September and that didn't come to fruition; it only extended it till the end of June.

Anything's possible right now, but I think the major focus needs to be on those rent assistance dollars getting out to people that are desperately in need.

-Well, Susy, Quintin and Jim, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

-Absolutely, thank you.

-Happy to be here.

-Thank you, as always, for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevada-week.

You can also find us on social media at @nevadaweek.

Thanks again, and we'll see you next week.

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