Tucson Reps.: Without action from Ducey, state will face 'tsunami of evictions'

For many Arizonans, a job loss or unexpected medical bill means the threat of eviction. Come Jan. 1, 2021, the CDC moratorium on eviction actions will expire and many landlords, already prepared and just waiting for permission, will file what those in relief agency circles are calling “an eviction tsunami.” Already in Pima County alone, landlords have teed up nearly 280 evictions by getting the court proceedings out of the way. All that is needed is to refresh the writ and then have it served by a constable.

According to Stout Risius Ross, a recognized industry leader in analytics, between 112,700 and 120,000 renters in Arizona are at risk of being evicted just as the rest of the state wakes up to New Year’s Day. That figure seems impossible until you realize that, as of Nov. 9, 22.1% of Arizona renters are not current on their rental payment and 34.4% had either “no” or only “slight” confidence they would be able to pay next month’s rent. The plight of families with children and communities of color are particularly alarming. Fully 56.4% of Arizona households with children, and 49.1% of black, Hispanic or Latino households have no or only slight confidence they could pay next month’s rent.

Arizona small-business landlords and homeowners are hurting as well. Approximately 9.6% of all homeowners are not current on mortgage payments. By New Year’s Day, between an astounding $522 million and $544 million dollars will be owed to landlords in unpaid rent.

County housing agencies and nonprofits throughout the state have been working around the clock to distribute millions of dollars in rental and mortgage assistance, and the CDC stepped in last July to impose an eviction moratorium through the end of the year. But the moratorium is best analogized to a wall currently holding back a wave of eviction actions which is due to be torn down on Jan. 1. Even today many eviction actions are seeping through the wall, being filed as lease violations for such trivial matters as parking over the painted line or leaving cigarette butts in the driveway.

That is why we’re calling on the governor to use his emergency powers to prevent the eviction tsunami by instituting a 90-day eviction moratorium. This is a public-health necessity. While the governor has called upon families to “stay home” as COVID-19 cases once again spike, staying home is simply not possible when you’ve been evicted. While we hope that the virus will be more under control by January, that is not at all assured and, in fact, colder weather and the return of families after the holidays will likely mean that infection rates in Arizona continue to be high for even some time after the New Year and may remain high during January through March, when Arizona has traditionally served as a tourist destination.

We are further requesting that the governor replenish the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Trust Fund with an additional $10 million. That, together with radically simplifying the eligibility criteria for rental assistance, will help even renters lacking internet and struggling to take care of a sick family member or young children to apply. One idea we would like the governor to consider is allowing landlords to apply for rental assistance on behalf of their tenants, something that has been done successfully by nonprofit agencies in Pima County.

Finally, the financial burden of this pandemic should not be borne by property owners. It is important that the governor deploy funds to address rent shortfalls for small business landlords and that he condition such grants on the landlords’ agreement not to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent.

We stand ready to work with Gov. Ducey on these solutions to avoid an eviction tsunami. But our approach cannot be piecemeal and disjointed; the type of leadership required begins at the top.