Appeals court upholds Escambia County judge's ruling to allow evictions in pandemic

A Florida appeals court has upheld an Escambia County judge's ruling to keep eviction proceedings moving in local court, despite a federal moratorium.

Most of the country adhered to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium that was in place between September 2020 and July 2021 that prevented landlords from evicting tenants who were unable to make rent payments due to the impacts of COVID-19.

But First Circuit Court Judge Patricia Kinsey determined in a November 2020 local case that the moratorium rose to levels of government overreach, and eviction cases in the First Circuit continued. Attorneys for the tenant in the case appealed Kinsey's ruling, but last week, the First District Court of Appeals affirmed the decision.

Eviction moratorium: Eviction moratorium set to expire Saturday. That's nothing new to Florida Panhandle renters

Homeless camp: Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson says I-110 homeless camp must be cleared by mid-January

Christine Kelly, the Legal Services of North Florida attorney who represented the tenant in the case, said affirming the judge's decision wasn't surprising after the Supreme Court rejected a proposed continuation of the eviction moratorium nationally in August.

She said the pandemic is still impacting clients in her tenant-landlord cases. If it's not their inability to pay rent because of a pandemic-related issue, then they're battling being low-income and paying for rising costs of essentials like gas and groceries.

"We deal with much lower income populations so most of our clients would be homeless if they got evicted," she said.

Data from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller’s Office shows there was a dip in First Circuit eviction cases throughout 2020, but so far in 2021, there have been 1,368 eviction cases, which is getting back on track to the 2019 number that was about 1,800.

Advocates say that steady rate of cases proceeding, coupled with the impacts of COVID-19, has led to an outcry of people desperately seeking housing that isn't available.

"If you compared to this time last year, we haven't really seen an uptick in calls from people seeking assistance at risk of eviction, but what we have seen is an uptick of people at risk of homelessness now," said United Way of West Florida Executive Director Laura Gilliam.

United Way of West Florida's 211 service — a clearinghouse that intakes clients and refers them to agencies or resources to help them — has had an increase from between 10% to 15% of calls seeking help for homelessness issues to between 28% and 41% on any given month. The other highest resources needed are help with utility payments and mortgage assistance.

"I think it's everything. It's people's rents having gone up, affordable housing isn't there, the cost of groceries is up so money's going elsewhere, a number of things has caused this," Gilliam said.

Kelly said the situation is looking more promising now that there are additional avenues for both the tenant to pay emergency rent and the landlord to recoup unpaid rent, such as the state's Our Florida program and Escambia County's emergency rental assistance program. Still, if clients are evicted, they face an uphill battle in finding somewhere affordable to go.

Affordable housing: Tiny homes, vacant lots, fees: How Pensacola area could address affordable housing

First tiny home: The first tiny home in Pensacola is constructed. Take a peek inside

"I feel like COVID's still a big factor in what's going on," she said. "The fact (that) prices are so high and we have a housing shortage in Pensacola right now, which is partially caused by moratoriums, we've got properties damaged by Hurricane Sally, there's a lot of factors playing into it together."

Gilliam said when people are evicted from their homes, there's a ripple effect into other facets of the community, such as the need for affordable housing or homelessness.

Waiting lists for government subsidies like housing vouchers are taking months and low-income apartments are hard to find, leaving United Way with few options on where to send people for help.

"We do the best we can to send them to the places we believe still have those financial resources but that’s the challenge and the frustration we have," Gilliam said. "We're sitting here looking at this list and we may know there’s nothing there available. We know the housing vouchers are great but the housing stock is just minimal."

Emma Kennedy can be reached at ekennedy@pnj.com or 850-480-6979.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida appeals court upholds judge ruling to allow pandemic evictions