photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-World File Photo

Houses in a neighborhood just west of downtown Lawrence are shown in this file photo from November 2011.

Though unemployment rates remain stubbornly high, both state and federal actions to respond to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic appear to be heading off any increase in the number of evictions in Lawrence, at least for now.

As the Journal-World recently reported, Douglas County’s unemployment rate dipped ever so slightly in July, but the number of unemployed people in the county was still up by more than 3,100 people compared with a year ago. Gov. Laura Kelly has issued two orders temporarily prohibiting evictions if nonpayment was due to a substantial financial hardship related to the pandemic, and the federal government was previously providing additional federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week. Those extra payments expired at the end of July, and Congress has not yet agreed on a new aid package that might provide a replacement.

Douglas County District Court does not create compiled records of certain case types, but a Journal-World review of all the limited civil cases — the case type used for eviction filings — indicated that the number of eviction cases filed amid the pandemic so far has not been above pre-pandemic levels.

Specifically, the Journal-World reviewed cases filed in the approximately 12 weeks between the expiration of Kelly’s initial order barring evictions and her new order taking effect, or between May 26 and Aug. 17. In that period, 112 evictions were filed in Douglas County District Court, or an average of about 40 per month. The Journal-World also reviewed eviction filings in the month of January, and found that 49 evictions were filed.

The review seems to line up with what local housing counselors are seeing in Lawrence. Teresa Baker, the Tenant/Landlord Program manager for Housing and Credit Counseling Inc., which offers free services in Lawrence thanks to a grant from the city, said that the program has just been dealing with typical renter issues, such as maintenance problems, security deposits, abandoning a lease early, and rent nonpayment issues not related to COVID-19.

“In relation to COVID, and this is surprising, but we’ve received very few calls from the Lawrence area, and across Kansas for that matter,” Baker said.

The Journal-World reached out to the Lawrence Apartments Association, a local landlord group, to hear about what landlords have been seeing amid the high unemployment rates related to the pandemic, but did not immediately hear back.

Baker said the reason COVID-19 has not caused a jump in evictions is likely due to the federal financial support that has been available to those who have lost jobs, as well as the willingness of many creditors and landlords to work with both homeowners and tenants. She said local social service agencies have also received additional government funding, and that has also helped. She said when courts opened back up, that HCCI did hear about some eviction filings, but they were not related to COVID-19.

However, Baker acknowledged that the situation is volatile and could change for the worse if Congress does not decide on another stimulus package. Apart from the local unemployment numbers, a recent U.S. Census survey indicated that as of the week ending July 21, about 15 million people nationwide said they were behind on or had deferred rent payments, including about 80,000 people in Kansas. Baker said that without another government stimulus package many tenants would struggle financially, which in turn affects landlords, particularly small-scale ones.

For now, though, many people will not have to worry about losing their housing if their nonpayment is related to COVID-19. A recent federal order prohibits evictions through the end of 2020 for people below certain incomes who have lost work during the pandemic if eviction would cause them to become homeless or live in close quarters with others. The Centers for Disease Control issued that order on Sept. 1 on the grounds that allowing such evictions would increase the spread of the virus.

Baker said what tenants need to be sure to understand is that neither the state or federal moratoriums forgive past due rent, and that back rent and late fees, should landlords decide to assess them, will be due once the moratorium expires on Jan. 1.

“It’s really nice right now for so many tenants. I’m sure that they can breath a sigh of relief,” Baker said. “But then the bill will come due; rent is still going to accrue, late payments are still going to accrue.”