Pandemic Pauses Evictions; Tenant Advocates Call For Longer Moratorium; Landlord Impact Uncertain

Fair Haven tenant Alexandra Hemmings felt mixed when she learned the next hearing in her eviction case had been delayed two weeks after the state suspended housing court in an attempt to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the one hand, she now has more time to prepare her argument to stay in place in her Poplar Street apartment.

On the other, if she loses and is evicted in early April, she could end up couch-surfing with friends in the midst of a pandemic, all but homeless and increasingly vulnerable to catching the virus.

Hemmings is one of many housing court litigants who have found their cases suddenly put on hold after the state Judicial Branch announced last Friday that the courts would be hearing only those matters defined as ​“Priority 1 Business Functions” between March 16 through March 27.

Those priority functions include criminal arraignments of defendants held in lieu of bond, all arraignments involving domestic violence cases, juvenile detention hearings, family orders of relief from abuse, and civil protection orders, among others.

The courts have also suspended all jury trials for 30 days, until April 13, with the exception of jury trials already in progress and criminal jury trials ​“necessitated by the filing and granting of a speedy trial motion,” according to the court’s press release. 

That means that the courts will not be scheduling or hearing any housing court or eviction cases between March 16, which was Monday, and March 27.

Chief Administrative Judge for Civil Matters James Abrams took matters a step further when he issued an immediate stay of all issued executions and ejectments through March 27.

That means that tenants who could be evicted without the court hosting any more actual in-person hearings in the case will not be forced to leave their homes through March 27.

Landlords can, however, continue to file new eviction cases in court during this temporary suspension. And the court has decided not to withdraw executions on evictions that were issued last Friday, the day that the court system announced it would be suspending most operations starting March 16.

That has prompted local and state tenant advocates like New Haven legal aid’s Shelley White (see more below) to call on the court system either to enact a longer suspension of housing court than just two weeks, or to put forward some kind of detailed plan on how evictions and foreclosures will be handled after March 27, considering that the pandemic is not likely to be over by the end of next week.

It also prompted a local attorney who frequently represents both tenants and landlords in the city’s housing court to question how a longer eviction moratorium might impact small-scale landlords (also see below).

Mayor Justin Elicker (pictured) has not gone so far as to issue any kind of executive order urging a longer moratorium on evictions by the state-controlled judicial system, which many other cities and states around the country already have. He did throw his support during a Monday afternoon interview behind at least the idea of a longer moratorium on evictions.

“What’s important is for people to hunker down,” he said. ​“And if people don’t have the ability to hunker down, they’re going to have to go to a homeless shelter. That’s going to exacerbate the problem significantly. From both an economic and a public health perspective, I would definitely support any efforts to prevent evictions.”

Last Friday, the state Public Utility Regulatory Agency (PURA) issued a ruling directing all regulated electric, natural gas, and water companies in the state to cease residential service terminations for nonpayment ​“as a protective measure during the current public health emergency.”

In a quickly evolving story, President Donald Trump declared midday Wednesday that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will temporarily suspend ​“all foreclosures and evictions” during the COVID-19 crisis. He said that that ​“immediate relief” for renters and homeowners will last through the end of April..

Not Right ​“For Me To Be Out There In A Pandemic”

Reached by email and phone on Monday, Hemmings said that her mind is in a similar space right now.

She has been embroiled in a summary process eviction case with her landlord, Ferry Mutual Housing Limited Partnership/NeighborWorks New Horizons, since Jan. 8, when the Grand Avenue-based affordable housing landlord filed an eviction complaint based on Hemmings’ nonpayment of rent since August 2019.

According to court records, Hemmings succeeded in temporarily delaying the court-ordered eviction execution earlier this month by arguing that she she never received proper notice about the case from her landlord or the court.

She told the Independent that she has been withholding her rent for a variety of reasons: She said that she faced sexual discrimination from maintenance personnel, that she has no back door to her unit and inadequate egress in the event of a fire, that she has no parking spot which she said was supposed to be part of her rent, and that she has no mailbox.

The landlord and the landlord’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article. In court filings they argued that Hemmings owes $5,920 in back rent and that she should know the housing court process because she has been taken to court before.

State Superior Court Judge Claudia Baio had initially scheduled Hemmings’ next hearing to take place on Thursday at 9:45. Last Friday, the court pushed that next hearing to April 2 after noting in an order that ​“in accordance with the suspension of all civil housing matters scheduled from March 16, 2020 through March 27, 2020, the above captioned case will be rescheduled.”

“As I reflect in terms of my case and the coronavirus,” Hemmings told the Independent by email Monday night, ​“it is a very scary thought to think of my injunction not being accepted and having such a short amount of time to find housing. Being that I am already disabled and a diabetic in a pandemic, it really puts things into perspective.

“I was surprised at the court’s decision to move towards postponing cases such as mine for the time being as a blessing but an opportunity to strength[en] my resolve. If this injunction is not passed I may have to reach out to friend for help and relatives in the time being as I try to work out my housing matters.”

Hemmings reiterated that point in a phone interview also on Monday. ​“You can’t just push out people” during a pandemic,” she said. ​“The city does not have the proper resources” to handle recently evicted and newly homeless individuals.

“I’m disabled. I’m a diabetic. It would not be kosher or right for me to be out there in a pandemic.”

“We Need A Long Term Plan”

In a letter submitted last Friday to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Robinson, Chief Court Administrator Patrick Carroll III, and Deputy Chief Court Administrator Elizabeth Bozzuto, New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) Director of Litigation Shelley White (pictured) joined tenant advocates from Greater Hartford Legal Aid, Connecticut Legal Services, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, and the Connecticut Legal Rights Project to call on the court system to deepen protections for tenants during the spread of the novel coronavirus.

While praising the suspension of new hearings through March 27, they said, the court needs to look further into the future.

“We urge the judicial department to extend this suspension beyond two weeks until such time as there is assurance that the crisis has been contained,” the letter reads.

The advocates also called on the court to stop new eviction cases from being filed during the suspension, to stop allowing default judgments to be entered against tenants who do not respond in time to a new summary process action, and to stop eviction order executions from being issued and carried out. (While the court has followed the advocates’ recommendations on those latter two points, stopping default judgments and stopping executions, it is still allowing new eviction cases to be filed.)

“Evictions in a time of a public health crisis simply means that families — including many children — will become homeless,” the letter reads. ​“The homeless are perhaps the demographic most at risk for contracting and transmitting the virus.”

During a follow-up phone interview Monday morning, White reiterated her praise for the court system’s decision to suspend housing court matters at least temporarily. ​“In most of the state’s housing courts, there’s anywhere between 100 to 150 people packed into those large courtrooms on any given hearing date,” she said. ​“It’s just a recipe for disaster in case anyone has the virus.” Shutting down for now is the right move to protect the litigants, the court personnel, and the judges.

However, she said, March 27 is not long enough to delay these hearings and subsequent evictions.

“We all know that [the pandemic] is not ending” at the end of the month, she said. ​“What is the judicial department’s long-term plan going forward?”

She called on the mayor’s office to ask state marshals to delay eviction executions for at least 30 days. ​“If you’ve reached the point of execution, you’re still living in the house,” she said. ​“Marshals just put you out on the street.”

She said that anyone who has the resources and another place to move to ​“is not going to have an execution issued.” Therefore, those who are about to be forcibly removed from their homes almost certainly have no other place to go.

She pointed to longer suspensions of evictions that have been put in place in Baltimore, Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco, among other places.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order giving local governments the authority to halt evictions through the end of May. New York State has indefinitely suspended eviction proceedings and a coalition of 29 New York landlords had pledged to not follow through on eviction executions for 90 days amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

“This isn’t going to end in two weeks,” White said. ​“We need a long-term plan.”

“We have to figure this out,” she continued. ​“How do we balance the public health issues against possessory rights? Given the gravity of the situation, it makes much more sense to keep people housed even at the inconvenience of owners until we get through this.”

When asked for a comment on the court system’s long term plan for housing court matters in general and eviction proceedings in particular after the hearing suspension ends on March 27, Rhonda Hebert and Melissa Farley from the judicial branch’s external affairs department replied, ​“The Judicial Branch is continuously monitoring the situation and will provide adequate notice of any changes.”

In a follow-up email on Wednesday, White said that “[s]uspending court through Friday March 27th now seems quaint” considering the spread of the novel coronavirus and the pandemic’s impact on all aspects of society over just the past two days.

“Judicial needs to extend the suspension immediately so people do not have to show up in court that week, at which point every indication is that we will be in full blown crisis,” she wrote.

According to the state judicial database, there are 31 cases scheduled for New Haven’s housing court on March 31 alone.

“Both evictions and foreclosures need to be completely halted – every aspect of every proceeding from the service of notices all the way through the physical eviction or ejectment — - throughout the social distancing period and probably beyond that to enable people to apply for and obtain any kind of relief funds that may be forthcoming or at least work out payment plans and make other appropriate arrangements.”

“Incredibly Difficult For Smaller Landlords”

Local attorney Ben Trachten (pictured), who regularly represents both tenants and landlords in the city’s housing court, had a different perspective on a potentially longer eviction moratorium.

“A longer term moratorium would be incredibly difficult for smaller landlords,” he told the Independent by email Wednesday. ​“The financial strain of having to provide essential services, repairs, pay mortgage, pay consumables like water and sewer, and many other impositions would be crippling for landlords who haven’t built up a reserve for such situations. I am sure most have not. While larger landlords may be able to weather the financial storm of a significant decrease in rent collection for some period, eventually they too will stop paying employees, vendors, lenders, and others.

“This cascade of doom will be more difficult to address the longer our local, state, and federal authorities wait to provide some comprehensive relief for both landlords and tenants. Even landlords that receive a significant portion of their rents through subsidies are vulnerable because such subsidies are usually not promises to pay 100 percent of the rent, just a portion based on the tenant’s income.”

Representatives from some of the city’s largest private landlords, including Mandy Management, Ocean Management, and Pike International, did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the publication time of this article how they will proceed with eviction filings during the suspension and eviction executions after March 27.

One large-scale local landlord, Matthew Harp of Renaissance Management, told the Independent by email that ​“any and all business decisions will always be made compassionately and with a sense of understanding for the shared sacrifice we are all being asked to make during this trying time.”

When asked how exactly the ongoing pandemic might affect his company’s decisions on how to proceed with an eviction, Harp replied, ​“Our policy has always been to consider the totality of circumstances when deciding to evict someone. That will never change.”

Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton (pictured) told the Independent by text message Monday that ​“evictions are not high on the radar at the moment. We are dealing with many more pressing issues.”

She said that all non-essential employees at the public housing agency are working remotely starting Tuesday.

She said that the agency’s offices are generally closed to the public for walk-in business and that appointments are extremely limited, and only for emergency situations and urgent matters.

“Seniors and other vulnerable residents are receiving support to allow them to adhere to social distancing protocols,” she wrote. ​“Our full emergency protocols have been implemented.”

Click here to read the housing authority’s detailed COVID-19 protocols.

According to that document, the housing authority provides homes for over 1,600 families in the city.

The protocols require residents, staff and visitors to report potential exposures to the novel coronavirus. It calls on people who have been potentially exposed to self-isolate at home and contact a medical provider. It calls on residents to limit the number of visitors to their property to ​“only those who are essential to the residents’ care and well-being.” And it calls on staff to post and distribute informational materials about the pandemic to the elderly, families, and youth in particular.

“We do not provide a service that allows us to close our doors,” the housing authority protocols read. ​“Our residents depend upon us for the provision of their essential housing needs. We are called upon to maintain these sites in a cleanly manner and to provide services to our residents. We play a key role in minimizing our risk of exposure by maintaining the cleanliness of our sites, by reinforcing public health directive to slow the spread and by being responsive to the needs of our residents.”