North Carolina urges governor to end eviction moratorium

(The Center Square) – North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell is urging Gov. Roy Cooper to end the state’s eviction moratorium.

Cooper’s order coincided with a Centers for Disease and Control Prevention’s nationwide rental eviction moratorium during the coronavirus pandemic. Folwell said the state order could be preventing new rental properties from becoming available.

The governor signed an executive order in October 2020 that established the state moratorium and a rental assistance program, N.C. Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions (HOPE) Program. The program directed payments to landlords on behalf of tenants.

Folwell said he supported the original order but did not support the follow-up extensions. The current executive order is scheduled to expire at the end of the month.

“As a member of the Council of State, I don’t pretend to be a subject matter expert on contractual relationships, remedies under the law or the success or ineffectiveness of the North Carolina Hope Program,” Folwell said. “However, this policy is reducing opportunities for citizens to rent because landlords don’t want to take the risk that they won’t get paid. What was originally an act of COVID, now exists solely as an act of the state and no longer advances any public purpose. It is potentially lowering rental housing inventory.”

Cooper’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

According to the June 2 release from Cooper’s office, the HOPE program awarded $133 million to more than 36,000 applicants in its first phase. Cooper launched the program with Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds. The program was relaunched in May with American Rescue Plan Act funding. As of June 1, 8,000 people have applied for financial assistance and the state has awarded $9.5 million to low-income renters.

Folwell said growing up as a child of a single mother, his family too struggled financially and was not able to receive assistance. He said “their landlord gave his family the benefit of the doubt, working with them so they could continue to have shelter.”

“There are hundreds of thousands of these relationships across North Carolina,” Folwell said.

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