Link | Publication: Bennett Leckrone, Maryland Matters | Date: April 14, 2021
Excerpt
Several tenant relief efforts failed in the last hours of the 2021 legislative session Monday, drawing condemnation from fair housing advocates who say the state isn’t doing enough to stop evictions — particularly during the pandemic.
And although the American Rescue Plan earmarked millions for rent relief in Maryland, Matthew Losak, executive director of the Montgomery County Renters Alliance, told Maryland Matters that money alone won’t stop a “gathering storm” of evictions.
“It was a huge omission by the legislature to ignore the eviction crisis,” Losak said.
Fair housing advocates have warned throughout the pandemic that, despite state and federal stays on evictions, tenants are still losing their homes. Those orders give tenants an affirmative case in failure to pay rent cases, but landlords can refuse to renew a lease and then file what’s called a “tenant holding over” action if the tenant stays on the property after their lease ends.
Some of those tenants were evicted even after receiving rent subsidies. Lisa Sarro, general counsel for Arundel Community Development Services, told lawmakers during a March meeting that her organization paid a landlord thousands in arrears last December, but the landlord filed a tenant-holding-over action just days later.
“If landlords are able to evict despite payments of the arrears that are owed, that doesn’t do what the funding is there for,” Sarro said in March.
Losak slammed lawmakers for not moving House Bill 1312, sponsored by Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins, before midnight on the last day of session. That bill would’ve codified and expanded current protections for tenants throughout the pandemic and in future catastrophic health emergencies, although it had been significantly paired back by the House Judiciary Committee roughly a month ago.