With less than a week before the statewide moratorium on evictions expires, advocates for tenants say the courts may get swamped if the moratorium isn't extended after Tuesday, June 8, and relief will no longer be provided to those who could have used it.
If evictions happen because of a failure to extend the moratorium, Dan O’Meara, managing attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii’s housing and consumer unit, pointed out that tenants who will be evicted are not eligible for rent relief — a huge amount of money that has not been spent by the state or given to renters.
“It would be unfortunate to start a lot of evictions because there’s still a lot of money on the table to help both the landlord and the tenant,” O’Meara said, according to Hawaii News Now.
He also said that non-extension would be incongruous to House Bill 1376, which is now awaiting Gov. David Ige’s signature. The governor hasn’t decided yet if he will be extending the moratorium.
HB 1376 provides that landlords allow tenants 15 days’ notice for terminating a rental agreement, up from five days. It would also “restrict when a landlord may exercise remedies, depending on the number of days that have elapsed following the expiration of the governor's eviction moratorium and the amount of rent due,” according to the language of the bill.
The moratorium for cutting off electricity service ended May 31.