Link | Publication: Bennett Leckrone, Maryland Matters | Date: Jan. 4, 2021
Excerpt
Marylanders have a collective shortfall that could total nearly $380 million, said Zafar Shah, an attorney with the Public Justice Center. Shah said 30% of Maryland households earning less than $50,000 said they couldn’t pay the prior month’s rent as of an early December survey.
Shah said he expects the $402 million in expected rental relief money will help families, but warned that it may come too late for some tenants.
“If there’s anything that I’d like the committee to take away from what’s happening with rental assistance, it’s that it takes a long time for that money to devolve down to a meaningful way to help renters and their landlords,” Shah said.
Evictions continued in Maryland in 2020 despite state and federal moratoriums: Maryland District Court Chief Judge John P. Morrissey said there were about 2,571 evictions in Maryland between July and November of 2020.
Morrissey noted that eviction filings were down across the state in 2020 due to court closures and the orders from state and federal officials. The state averaged 55,000 eviction filings a month before the pandemic, whereas some months in 2020 saw less than 10,000 new filings.
Some months in 2020 also saw a higher-than-average number of “tenant-holding-over” actions, which can occur when a tenant remains on a property after a lease ends. Under recently proposed rental relief legislation, landlords couldn’t refuse to renew a lease based on “rent delinquency and lease expiration” during the pandemic.