Thousands in Mecklenburg County Behind On Rent As Eviction Moratorium Ends

CHARLOTTE, NC -Rent is due for thousands of people in Mecklenburg county who don’t have the money to pay.

The eviction moratorium protections have expired and now millions of people across the country and  more than 19 thousand in Mecklenburg county are left with few options.

“People are needing two, and three, and four months worth of assistance and we’ve never seen that before,” explained Carol Hardison, the CEO of Crisis Assistance Ministries.

In Mecklenburg county, the situation is nearing dire for some. Hardison says they’ve been preparing for this for months.

“We want to help people get the funds that are available,” said Hardison.

There are grants and federal government funds available, but people working the front lines say there isn’t adequate infrastructure to disburse the funds. .

“The demand is so great that a lot of times that rental assistance gets out slower than we would like it too,” said Isaac Sturgill.

He works on housing cases with Legal Aid North Carolina.

“There have been times over the last few weeks where we may get up to 1000 calls a day sometimes,” said Sturgill.

He says 70% of their calls now deal with eviction defense.

“It’s people in various stages along the way. Some are facing lockouts. They’re at the end of the process. And now they’re worried about the locks being changed,” Sturgill explained.

The surge of evictions could have a wide reaching impact on the entire community..not only the families put out.

“Every family that is evicted is going to put a greater and greater strain on local governments and local organizations to provide help,” said Sturgill.