A coalition of 65 faith institutions in Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley is calling on Governor Ralph Northam to put in place a new eviction moratorium across the commonwealth.

“We’re hearing the stories of heartaches, and the impacts of eviction that are happening to our neighbors. Our faith reminds us that we must love our neighbors as ourselves, so we would be remiss if we didn’t remind you of this,” said Keith Savage, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Manassas and one of the co-chairs of Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE), the organization behind the call. Savage addressed his remarks at a virtual press conference to Northam.

The Virginia Supreme Court previously ordered a ban on eviction proceedings through June 28 — a ban which it had extended several times during the pandemic, at the request of the Northam administration. Chief Justice Donald Lemons did not extend the moratorium again at the end of June, meaning that evictions may now move forward in the commonwealth.

At the time of the June extension, the Northam administration said it needed more time to start up the Virginia Rent And Mortgage Relief Program to help people keep their housing in the midst of the pandemic. The state put an initial $50 million into the fund, but the program’s launch didn’t happen until the end of June, when the moratorium expired.

Debates over executive authority

Some advocates, including the VOICE clergy, think Northam has the power to act on his own to pause evictions — and say he should, so that the relief program has time to get up to speed. That would be a different means of achieving a new eviction moratorium; up until now, the courts have issued them at the urging of the governor.

In an opinion about options to obtain eviction relief requested by members of the House of Delegates, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring suggested that executive authority could be an acceptable route in the eyes of the law.

“The Governor has both statutory and executive authority to issue emergency orders,” the opinion reads, though it also notes that “Whether any particular executive order is an appropriate exercise of emergency power depends on the scope of the executive order and the facts and circumstances.”

But the Northam administration still has legal concerns about taking executive action on evictions.

“Governor Northam is committed to protecting Virginians facing eviction, but an executive order in this specific case would likely raise legal complexities that would hinder the expediency needed to help Virginians,” Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky wrote in an email to WAMU/DCist.

Yarmosky did not respond to a follow-up question about specific legal impediments to executive action to pause evictions.

The governor “continues to urge General District Judges to postpone docketing eviction proceedings,” Yarmosky noted.

A new program faces an ‘eviction tsunami’ 

In the absence of a new moratorium, VOICE clergy and other advocates worry that Virginia Rent And Mortgage Relief Program, which is being administered by local social services organizations in partnership with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, is not ready to deal with what Savage calls “the eviction tsunami” that could result from a failure to aid tenants who have fallen behind on their rent due to financial hardship during the pandemic.

“Don’t stand idly by as tens and thousands of Blacks and Latinx families are evicted. Our children will be most harshly victimized by this eviction,” said Savage, the First Baptist Church in Manassas pastor. “I’m hearing it from my own congregation.”

The Virginia Rent And Mortgage Relief Program is prioritizing help for households making 50% or less of area median income until July 20. After that, it will serve households at 80% of area median income. Renters — who are disproportionately people of color — are at particular risk for housing instability due to the pandemic.

Some low-income households are protected under other programs. Holders of federally-backed mortgages are provided assistance under the CARES Act. Renters in federal housing programs like the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit are also protected.

According to the state, the Virginia Rental and Mortgage Relief Program provided financial assistance to 309 households in the first nine business days after its launch on June 29. Nearly 600 households have had assistance approved but are waiting for required documentation. The Virginia Mercury reported that more than 12,000 eviction proceedings are pending in courts across Virginia.

In Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties, the state’s rent relief program is being overseen by Northern Virginia Family Services. Michael Best, a program manager at NVFS, says the organization has provided just 13 households with the state financial assistance. More households are in the pipeline: 650 have been referred to NVFS from county agencies, a requirement to qualify for the program; 309 have applications in progress; and 63 have submitted applications.

“The applicants that we’re seeing — many of them are either past due [on rent] or on the verge of eviction and homelessness,” Best says. And, he notes, it’s a wider range of people on the socioeconomic spectrum that are needing to seek help.

Best said that while NVFS is experienced in helping get people this kind of aid, the roll-out of the Rent and Mortgage Relief Program was very quick. His team had just a weekend to get a website up and ready to accept applications.

“The state wanted something up and running very quickly,” he says.

Clergy leaders say the result of the quick roll-out has been a lack of public knowledge about renter’s rights and assistance. Rev. Kameron Wilds, the pastor at Rising Hope Mission Church, said many families are limited in getting that information by a lack of access to the internet.

“That’s one of the reasons we need this moratorium, so that we can have more time to get the right information to them,” he said.

Best, who has worked in nonprofits for three decades, is supportive of another pause in evictions.

“Yes, a moratorium would definitely help,” he told WAMU/DCist. “People need relief right now. A lot of people still haven’t gone back to work and may not be able to go back to work.”

He also says that long-range thinking about how to handle housing instability will be needed, as the impact of the pandemic on people’s finances could last for years.

“It’s not going to be a couple of months, it’s not going to be six months, not going to be a year,” he says. “This is going to affect people for a minimum of a couple of years to come. And we’re going to need people and organizations ready to assist people in the community for the next couple of years, in order to recover.”

There’s evidence that some Virginians are already falling through the cracks. In the virtual press conference, clergy members said they had personal knowledge of parishioners and others who were at risk of eviction. Many recounted stories of people’s struggles to find and get referred for relief, or fears on the part of undocumented renters worried about giving personal information to official authorities.

Others, like Saif Rahman, of Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center, worry that renters are leaving their housing situations on their own because they aren’t able to pay rent and aren’t aware of the protections in place to help them.

“Even though people are qualified and eligible, the judges sometimes don’t know, the landlords themselves don’t care, and the people don’t know because they don’t have access to the information,” he said.

And, Best and VOICE clergy point out, the situation could get worse in August, when the extra $600 per month supplement for people receiving COVID-related unemployment benefits will end.

One renter, an Alexandria resident named Giuseppe, told clergy leaders on the press call that he’d been scheduled to appear in eviction court this week, though the date was postponed at the last minute. A Tunisian immigrant and a single father, he’s struggled to pay rent ever since he lost a federal contractor job in March when the project was postponed due to the pandemic. He’s tried looking for work at Safeway and as a ridehailing driver, and he’s managed to pay the majority of what he owes — but is short about $1,000, which puts him at risk of eviction.

“I’ve been here 31 years, and I’ve never faced this at all,” he said. “I always maintained a job, I always maintained a respectful salary that allowed me to meet ends. And then suddenly — this virus [came].”

He says his car has been repossessed, and he has $23 left in his bank account.

Clergy leaders with VOICE are organizing a letter-writing campaign to ask Northam to pause evictions until the state’s assistance program is up to speed.