NEW ORLEANS – Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) is anticipating “a tsunami” of evictions around Labor Day.
Eviction protections for tenants required by the federal CARES Act expired on July 25. The end of the $600 federal supplement to weekly unemployment checks is predicted to add another wave of people to the long list of jobless who cannot make their rent payments.
Since June 6, Louisiana landlords have been able to file 30-day eviction notices in court to get people evicted from their rentals, Laura Tuggle, executive director, told the Louisiana Record.
SLLS provides free legal services for low-income people in Louisiana.
Federal law had protected 50% of Louisiana tenants from evictions since the spring COVID shutdown. Now those tenants have lost their federal protection. Landlords can now proceed with evictions against them, she said.
Eviction notices must be filed in person and in court; with the landlord, tenant, attorneys and other parties present in crowded courthouses. Other housing advocates have proposed making the process more remote, as COVID cases continue to mount across the state.
Evictions in Louisiana can happen fast, Tuggle said. The sheriff can lock a tenant out of an apartment within about 40 days after a filing.
SLLS has seen a 300% increase in people seeking help with evictions this year, compared to those who sought help in the same two-month period last year.
“We are bracing ourselves for a tidal wave or a tsunami--whatever you want to call it,” Tuggle said.
COVID has made the situation worse, she said.
“There are not a whole lot of relatives, friends and shelters that can take people in because of COVID," she said.
One category of callers to SLLS has been students, who have lost their jobs and are stuck in leases. “They just want to go back home or wherever they were,” she said.
Louisiana landlord-tenant law, unlike the regulations in more tenant-friendly states such as New York and California, favors landlords in Louisiana, Tubby said. Evicting tenants goes fast, only taking 30 days once a notice is filed.
Still, there are things that SLLS can do to help, she said. They can work with the landlord to figure out a new payment arrangement or tap into the security deposit to just buy the tenant a little more time.
Evictions are not about people who do not want to pay the rent. The community will pay a high price for an eviction wave, Tuggle cautioned.
“We are trying to keep people housed and keep our community stabilized," she said. "Whatever we can do as a community to try to keep people stabilized, to prevent the impact on the economy, that is a thing to strive for now.”