PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court issued an order this week that lifts the statewide emergency on all courts in the state, including county courts.
But it’s also affecting the eviction moratorium, which protected tenants from being thrown out of their apartments.
The order states that “president judges are no longer authorized to declare local judicial emergencies.”
Josh Goldblum, managing attorney of Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, said that means at the county level, president judges can no longer authorize a judicial emergency to stop tenants from being evicted, even if they have started the rental assistance process.
“We are now faced with a situation where the CDC moratorium on evictions terminates June 30, and any orders for possession that had been entered subsequently can now proceed to eviction, because there'll be no CDC moratorium, and there'll be nothing else preventing locking out tenants from their apartments," said Goldblum.
He explained it’s a safety net that has been ripped away from tenants who lost jobs during the pandemic, and fell behind on rent.
“They can be evicted. even though rental assistance has been approved," he said.
"A remarkably frightening situation, because we have all the money there to help everybody.“
Goldblum urged tenants to keep on applying for rental assistance, because there are millions of dollars available to pay back rent: $56 million alone in Bucks County.
“The money's there. People should make applications. People should be continuing to make applications after June 30th," he said.
"Substantial amounts of money are going out the door right now. As quickly as they can process applications, they're processing applications."
Goldblum said that the issue involves a legal safety net for those who need rental assistance that has now disappeared.
"There was a net underneath us all, saying that while these applications are processed, you can't go ahead and lock people out. That net disappears July 1," he said.
"In other words, even though the application is being processed, you file your application, you can still be evicted because the money isn’t in the landlord's hands yet.”
Goldblum said Philadelphia is the only county which took action early and prevented evictions from moving forward after the moratorium.
“There is not a diversion or mediation order like (one) is happening in Philadelphia, which has a robust set of laws and services that tenants can access and slow down evictions and work with landlords, and have the time to apply for emergency rental assistance," he explained.
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"That's Philadelphia. In the four suburban counties that doesn't happen.”
The CDC eviction moratorium expires on June 30th. The State Supreme Court order affects all counties in the state, except Philadelphia.
Click here for further information on Bucks Emergency Rental Assistance (BERA).