Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh is asking the state’s chief judges to extend a moratorium on evictions until Jan. 31, citing the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A statewide moratorium on evictions issued by the Maryland Court of Appeals runs out July 25, the same sunset date for a national evictions ban that applies to federally financed properties.

Frosh is also calling on the courts to extend a stay on debt collection cases.

“Extension of the moratoria is critical because the ongoing public health emergency has rendered Marylanders’ inability to pay rent and consumer debt largely unchanged since the onset of the pandemic,” Frosh said in a statement. “Many Marylanders were struggling to pay housing and other expenses before the COVID-19 crisis, and the pandemic has exacerbated these difficulties exponentially.”

Maryland’s eviction ban consists of two components: a pause on hearings that was initiated by the courts, plus an executive order from Gov. Larry Hogan that provides tenants with a defense against eviction if they can prove the pandemic caused them to lose their income. The executive order — which does not stop landlords from threatening eviction or filing new cases once courts reopen — remains in effect as long as Maryland is under a state of emergency. But the Court of Appeals decides when hearings can resume. That day is July 25, unless the court acts again to suspend proceedings. (But for administrative reasons, the state’s District court isn’t expected to actually start hearing these cases until Aug. 31, and cases heard this early would pertain to proceedings that began before March 27.)

A statewide evictions moratorium expired about a month ago in Virginia, and hearings for nonpayment of rent cases have begun to ramp back up in the commonwealth amid the health crisis, except in courts that have opted to delay them. In the District, courts suspended proceedings for nonpayment-related evictions for the duration of the city’s health emergency, and the D.C. Council separately passed a temporary ban on evictions filings that has blocked new cases from entering the system. (Activists with D.C.’s Reclaim Rent Control coalition are holding a rally in Columbia Heights Saturday, calling for District lawmakers and landlords to “cancel rent” as long as out-of-work renters remain unable to pay.)

In Maryland, Frosh and members of the Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force sent a letter Friday to Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera and Chief Judge John P. Morrissey, asking them to extend the measures around evictions and debt hearings “until the General Assembly has the opportunity to enact, and the Governor to sign, emergency legislation to assist Marylanders with the housing and debt crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Hogan created a $30 million rental assistance fund for at-risk renters, but advocates have said the money doesn’t match the scale of the problem. They have urged the governor to allocate more than $150 million to eviction protections. (On Friday, more than 100 renters and advocates marched through Annapolis Friday to urge Hogan to step up renter protections during the health emergency, the Baltimore Sun reported.) 

The Aspen Institute has found that more than 356,000 Maryland residents are at risk of being evicted by the end of September.