From March to June of last year and since September, North Carolina has been under an eviction moratorium for tenants impacted by COVID-19.
‘Not a tenant versus landlord issue’
For almost all that time, rental aid from the government to compensate for landlords’ lost income has not been available.
Using federal money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES, North Carolina created a rental assistance program, the Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Eviction, or HOPE.
But after starting in October with over $100 million, the program ran out of money in a month and stopped accepting applications.
North Carolina didn’t receive any rental aid from the federal government until December. Another batch of assistance came in March.
But it took a few months for North Carolina, and most of the country, to get the programs ready to take applications. The HOPE program didn’t reopen until mid-May.
“I would have liked to see rental assistance kick in a little bit quicker,” Moore said. “I do hope that our state leaders really look holistically at the response of this pandemic and begin to think of ways how to improve upon it.”
That long wait for rental assistance hurt smaller landlords especially, Moore said.
