A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium protects North Carolina tenants from evictions until the end of the year. Any tenant can provide their landlord with a declaration form that attests they are unable to pay their rent and at risk of homelessness.
To give further aid to people facing eviction, Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 171made it mandatory for landlords to provide tenants facing eviction with blank copies of the CDC declaration form. More than 37,000 people have also applied for his rent and utility assistance program, NC HOPE. But advocates are concerned that thousands of tenants are still at risk of losing their homes because landlords refuse to maintain the property or refrain from renewing tenants’ leases. These are not classified as evictions for data purposes. Host Anita Rao talks with Jason deBruyn, WUNC data reporter and a member of the NC Watchdog Reporting Network, about eviction numbers in the state, solutions in place and ongoing challenges. WUNC's Caitlin Leggett and Celeste Gracia also contributed to this reporting by the NC Watchdog Reporting Network on evictions.
