Threat of rising evictions looms in NC; here’s where you can get help

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CHARLOTTE — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium ended this weekend. Now, many people could lose their homes and owe thousands in missed rent payments.

Jeff Phillips told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke he’s three months, or about $4,000, behind on rent and that his landlord already started the process to evict him.

The Equity Atlas says the average renter owes about $2,800, but Stoogenke is seeing many who owe as much as almost $10,000.

“On the surface, I don’t want to appear [stressed] because ... I’m just not the kind of person that likes to show that, but yeah, it’s been a very stressful time for me,” he said. “I’m, right now, trying to find a job as hard as I can.”

According to the latest information from the National Equity Atlas, here’s how many households are behind on rent in the Charlotte area:

  • Mecklenburg County – 28,174
  • Gaston County – 4,399
  • Iredell County – 2,697
  • Union County – 2,054
  • Cabarrus County – 3,100
  • York County – 8,929

Now, since more people may become homeless, Stoogenke checked federal homeless numbers for both Carolinas. He found that on any given day, there are more than 9,200 homeless people in North Carolina and more than 4,200 in South Carolina.

“It’s really got me, but I try to do the best I can, as far as I am Christian and I believe in, I have faith,” Phillips said.

(WATCH BELOW: Mecklenburg County sheriff’s deputies serve evictions after moratorium ends)

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FINANCIAL HELP:

If you live in Mecklenburg County and need help with rent, apply to the emergency housing assistance program, RAMP CLT here.

You can get money to cover everything you owe, plus as many as three months of rent moving forward.

All people who have an eviction court date coming up within 90 days of their application will be placed in the highest priority category.

You can also apply if you need help with utilities or your mortgage.

You can also ask Crisis Assistance Ministry for help with rent or utilities. They can be reached at 704-371-3001 or www.crisisassistance.org.

If you need help in another county, call the NC HOPE program to find out who to contact at 888-9ASK-HOPE (888-927-5467), or at www.rebuild.nc.gov/hope-program.

LEGAL HELP:

If you rent in Charlotte, the city has a dispute settlement program. Mediators help landlords and tenants work out agreements and avoid court. The program is free and confidential.

For more information, call 704-336-5330 or visit online here.

Renters from any city or county can contact Legal Aid. Their service is also free and confidential. The group told Stoogenke that it is preparing for all the additional renters who will have to go to court starting next week.

Contact Legal Aid at 866-219-LANC (5262) or online at www.legalaidnc.org.

Stoogenke reminds renters that landlords are required to go to court and get a judge to sign off on eviction – that’s called a “summary ejectment.” Be sure your landlord doesn’t tell you otherwise.

If you’re facing eviction specifically for not being about to pay rent, Stoogenke would like to hear from you. Please email him at Action9@wsoctv.com.

Firsthand stories of eviction

Representatives with Crisis Assistance Ministry in Gastonia say the stories they’re hearing from people who need help since the eviction moratorium ended are heartbreaking.

The ministry’s executive director Kim Wheeler said they’ve been getting calls for weeks from people who are behind on their rent. “One person owed $5,000; several owed $3,000,” she said.

Wheeler told Channel 9 reporter Ken Lemmon that one person owed $8,000 in past-due rent, which is far more than the $500 the organization is able to provide right now.

“It’s very hard to have to tell people that we are not able to assist when you owe that much,” she said.

Herbert Lyons says his family was evicted two months ago. “Ridiculous how they can just go ahead and evict families when a pandemic is going on,” he said. “It’s rough. I’m living day by day in a hotel.”

His financial troubles weren’t due to COVID-19, but he sympathizes with those whose are.

Wheeler said landlords have told her that they have seen more people behind on rent than ever before and that more eviction notices usually hit doors on the 10th of the month, which is about a week away.

There are millions of dollars available in a federal rental assistance plan, but only about 1 in 4 applicants receive that help.

“I’m not getting no type of help from nowhere,” Lyons said.

(WATCH: Crisis Assistance Ministry works to help those impacted by eviction moratorium ending)

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Threat of rising evictions looms in North Carolina

It wasn’t long after Iliana Diaz began her first day in person at Legal Aid’s Raleigh office that she and others were hit by a tsunami of phone calls.

Seated and masked in a small room on Monday, Diaz was among the five call center workers frantically trying to do the unachievable: respond to all the messages that had come in from low-income North Carolinians facing the threat of eviction after the federal eviction moratorium expired over the weekend.

The bilingual intake specialist who joined Legal Aid of North Carolina has seen a sharp rise in recent call volume and is motivated to help as many people as she can.

“If I don’t answer that phone call, then potentially that person may not have the chance to call back or they may just never have the chance to get any assistance whatsoever,” Diaz said.

For many struggling renters who have received eviction notices, Legal Aid can be the last line of defense. Depending on how much money they make, the law firm will connect them with a free attorney, another agency or share information on rental assistance programs.

North Carolina’s Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions (HOPE) program offers rent and utility assistance to low-income renters in 88 of the smallest counties in the state. Twelve larger counties are managing their own programs.

The state has set aside roughly $1.3 billion to help tenants cover their housing and utility costs, with nearly $1 billion going to the HOPE program and $300 million to the 12 larger counties.

North Carolina estimates it has awarded a total of more than $305 million to 81,039 different households that qualify for the HOPE program. The 12 counties overseeing their own programs have expended approximately $64 million, according to state officials.

On a typical Monday, the Legal Aid intake staff of a dozen, including five people working in person at the firm’s Raleigh office, will receive about 1,500 calls. Of those, the office will put about 500 in its system. The workers will be lucky if they can respond to half of that.

“I’m not sure we do meet the need. We just do what we can,” said James Tackett, the intake supervisor for Legal Aid who assigns cases to attorneys and ensures the phone lines are active.

Pandemic-induced job loss, a COVID-19 surge fueled by the delta variant and a lack of awareness of state and local rental assistance programs are creating extra cause for concern.

“What’s been different is people that have called for the first time, people that have never really had to speak to a lawyer,” Tackett said. “They’re 45 years old. They’ve never not paid rent, they’ve never gotten a notice to go to court, so that’s the surprise.”

But fears of mass evictions after the moratorium’s lapse have gone unrealized thus far in some North Carolina communities.

Sgt. David Ruppe hardly noticed the end of the federal eviction moratorium as he knocked on a weathered mobile home door in Cleveland County, a rural community an hour west of Charlotte.

“We haven’t seen much of a difference at all,” Ruppe said. “We would still have evictions issued from the court and we would still serve them as if it happened pre-COVID.”

He said the sheriff’s office previously served two to three evictions a day, but that number has dropped to two to three a week. He attributes the decline to landlords’ reluctance to file eviction paperwork amid the pandemic, though he expects it will eventually pick up.

On Monday morning, he explained to one woman three months behind on rent that her landlord had started the eviction process. When the woman told Ruppe that she had paid the back rent, he responded that she would need to bring proof of payment to her upcoming Aug. 9 court date.

According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, about 1 in 13 North Carolina tenants have no confidence they’ll be able to make next month’s rent. Survey data shows 30% of respondents believe it is at least somewhat likely that they will be evicted within two months.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.