After the Moratorium: National Eviction Resources and Data

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A provision of the CARES Act which has, so far, protected millions of people from losing their housing, is set to expire on July 25, 2020. Potentially, many residents of Harris County (and the rest of the nation) could be facing eviction. In response to the need for reliable information about housing instability, we’ve posted a number of helpful resources in this blog. In May, we wrote about the eviction moratoria issued at the federal and state levels, and in June, we provided links to information and self-help tools from Texas Law Help and Lone Star Legal Aid for those at risk of losing their homes. Now we are offering a bird’s eye view of eviction across our country, providing links to resources that present both national and state-by-state data.

• As Protections Expire, Millions Of Americans Face Threats Of Eviction – NPR Morning Edition, July 21, 2020 (Audio)

  • 6-minute nutshell interview with Matt Desmond, author of Evicted and founder of the Princeton Eviction Lab

• STOUT interactive eviction tool -- Developed by Stout Risius Ross, LLC (STOUT) with input from National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC)

  • Provides access to data on estimated number of tenants experiencing rental shortfalls along with data showing tenant confidence levels in their ability to pay next month’s rent.       

• COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard – Princeton Eviction Lab

  • See the list of additional COVID-19 housing resources and tools built by other organizations

• COVID-19 Protections for Homeless Populations -- National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

  • See compiled list of COVID-19 Resources on Housing Alternatives

• Eviction Moratorium Maps – Regional Housing Legal Services (RHLS)

  • Presents a graphic visualization of moratoria in effect in each state, at each phase of eviction

• Federal Eviction Moratoriums — National Low Income Housing Coalition

  • Searchable database and map allow some renters to identify if their home is covered by the CARES Act eviction moratoriums

• Just Shelter

  • Identifies organizations that preserve affordable housing, prevent eviction, and reduce family homelessness; Presents personal eviction stories

• The Scarlet E: Unmasking America’s Eviction Crisis – On the Media (Audio)

  • A four-part series on the “eviction epidemic” in this country; Hosted by Brooke Gladstone

More Tools for Tenants

As a follow-up to our post from May 20, 2020, “Evictions Are Once Again on the Docket,” we wanted to make sure that our readers were aware of two new tools to help residential tenants facing evictions. Lone Star Legal Aid has introduced its Texas Eviction HELP Project. Using an interview format, the tool provides information about the eviction process and includes links to trusted resources. To begin, just click on the big red button, “Start Eviction Interview.” No account is required to run the interview; just accept the terms and conditions, and you’re good to go. The step-by-step guide will help tenants with documentation and provide information about new laws that might give tenants extra protection. Just be sure to have any paperwork or eviction documents ready during the interview. Additional resources on the Lone Star Legal Aid website include: the LSLA CARES Tool to help tenants determine whether the property is subject to the CARES Act, educational blogs and videos covering a wide array of topics, and some helpful publications for further reading.

The second useful tool can be found on TexasLawHelp. TexasLawHelp has created a COVID-19 Eviction Answer Toolkit to help tenants respond to an eviction. The toolkit includes instructions for filling out the eviction answer form, which can be found on the website. There is also information about finding out whether the CARES Act protects tenants from eviction, answers to frequently asked questions about the Answer form itself, and helpful articles about evictions in general.

Regulating Your Fun in the Sun

Did you know that the Friday before Memorial Day has been designated as Don’t Fry Day? Relax. It doesn’t mean that you cannot eat or cook any fried food, such as fried chicken or French fries, but rather, it is day set aside by the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention to encourage sun safety awareness. In the United States, Memorial Day weekend is typically the unofficial beginning of the summer season. That would mean (in a pandemic-free world), trips to the beach or the park, backyard barbecues, and swimming, all of the hallmarks of summer living. All of that time spent outdoors in the sunshine also means that it’s time to slather on the sunscreen.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), skin cancer is the most common form of cancer found in the United States. While it recognizes that there are benefits to spending time outdoors, the CDC recommends protecting your skin from harmful UV rays “by staying in the shade, wearing protective clothing, and applying a broad spectrum sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher.”

All of this talk of sunscreen made us wonder about the regulations that govern the sunscreen that we are putting in our skin. (We’re law librarians. Can’t you tell?) The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is the agency responsible for regulating the topical sunscreens that consumers find on store shelves. These regulations can be found in 21 C.F.R. §§352.1 - 352.77 (2020). Specifically, the FDA regulates the active ingredients that are in the sunscreen, the combination of those ingredients, the labeling of the products, and the testing procedures. In addition, to be “generally recognized as safe and effective” (GRASE) and not misbranded, a sunscreen product must meet the conditions set forth in 21 C.F.R. § 330.1 (2020) as well as those found in Part 352.

To comply with provisions in the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act (FDCA), as amended by the Sunscreen Innovation Act (SIA), the FDA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register early last year requesting additional data to determine whether certain active ingredients found in sunscreens are GRASE in light of changed conditions since the publication of the previous rule in 1999. The proposed rule would update the regulatory requirements for most sunscreens. The FDA planned to implement this rule and make it part of a final Monograph, but never did. The proposed rule and monograph have been thrust once again into the light of day with the enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March. Section 3854 of the CARES Act, which sunsets the SIA on September 30, 2022, permits a sponsor of a nonprescription sunscreen active ingredient to elect a review of the ingredients in accordance with the procedure set forth in section 505G of the FDCA, as added by Section 3851 of the CARES Act or pursuant to the process set forth in section 586C of the FDCA (21 U.S.C. §360fff-3). The effect of these new rules concerning the safety of certain active ingredients remains to be to seen. Until then, the FDA still highly recommends that everyone use sunscreen and be smart when it comes to sun exposure. So, on this Feel Good Friday, we want you to enjoy, have fun, and be safe. And, remember, don’t fry today or any day.

Evictions Are Once Again on the Docket

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court of Texas had issued its Fourth Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Disaster, establishing a moratorium on any action for eviction to recover possession of residential property until April 19, 2020. The expiration date for this moratorium was subsequently extended by the Twelfth Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Diasater to May 18, 2020. These orders allowed new filings to be submitted during the moratorium but halted the posting of any statutory notice of a writ of possession as well as any service of citation until May 25, 2020.

In addition to the Texas moratorium, renters had the further protection provided by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted by Congress on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act, and specifically Section 4024(b), prohibited landlords of certain “covered dwellings” from instituting eviction actions or charging fees or penalties for the nonpayment of rent. The protections afforded by the CARES Act extend 120 days from its date of enactment. During this 120-day period, landlords also are enjoined from issuing any notices to vacate. Under the statute, landlords are also required to provide tenants with 30 days during which to vacate the premises. However, the protections afforded by the CARES Act are only applicable to covered property. Section 4024(a)(2) defines “covered property” as any property that participates in a federal assistance program, such as public housing, Section-8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, and the Low Housing Income Tax Credit (LHITC) program or that is secured by a federally backed mortgage loan or federally backed multifamily mortgage loan, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or that is insured by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs. Of course, the difficulty involved with the CARES Act as it relates to renters involves whether the property which they are renting is a covered property under the Act. Unfortunately, renters might have no reason to know this as the property is owned by another party, and it might be difficult to determine or discover whether the property is covered. To aid in this regard, ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom, has published an interactive database to help renters find out if the federal moratorium would apply to them.

For those Texas renters whose property is not a covered one as defined in the CARES Act, eviction, unfortunately, could become a sad reality. With the Texas moratorium expiring on May 18, landlords are now free to move forward with eviction proceedings, including the issuance of service of process and the posting of writs of possession. Note that the onus is not necessarily on the tenant to determine whether the dwelling is a covered one under the CARES Act. Pursuant to the Fifteenth Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Disaster, landlords are required to state in any sworn petitions or separate affidavit filed between March 27, 2020 and July 25, 2020, that “the premises are not subject to the moratorium on evictions imposed by Section 4024 of the CARES Act.” A sample of an affidavit containing the required language can be found on the website of the Harris County Justice Courts. Interested parties are directed to consult the websites of the individual justice courts for more information about filing and court proceedings.

For those tenants who require some assistance, there are some options available. There are some legal aid organizations in Harris County and the Houston area that might be able to help, most notably, Houston Volunteer Lawyers and Lone Star Legal Aid. Others around Texas include: Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, Texas Legal Services Center, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. There is also some useful information on TexasLawHelp.org concerning eviction and other landlord issues, including a page discussing Evictions During the COVID-19 Pandemic. See also a post written by the blog team here at the Harris County Law Library about some useful landlord/tenant resources.