State court order now pauses eviction removals too, Mecklenburg sheriff says
Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden said Friday his office will stop eviction removals for one month, thanks to a court order from the state’s chief justice.
“Removing people from their homes during this crisis is simply not in the best interest of our community or public safety,” McFadden said in a statement Friday. “I hope that this temporary delay of evictions will provide some relief to those facing hardships as we weather this pandemic.”
Chief Justice Cheri Beasley had already significantly restricted courthouse activity to slow the spread of COVID-19 in response to Gov. Roy Cooper’s order prohibiting gatherings of 100 or more people. A March 15 order halted new eviction and foreclosure hearings.
But McFadden on Monday said his office was required to execute removal orders already in the pipeline without a court order to stop. At the time, he said he didn’t want to exacerbate the county’s existing affordable housing crisis during a public health emergency.
He estimated about 75 eviction orders in the county would be affected.
Beasley’s subsequent order Thursday states that the deadline for all documents, motions and orders by the court would be extended to April 17. That includes court-ordered evictions.
The sheriff’s office statement said McFadden “is grateful that the courts recognized a need for a different approach during this pandemic.”
This comes as unemployment claims spike across the state and the full economic impact of Cooper’s order to close or restrict restaurants and other service sector businesses is still unknown.
Several other states have issued similar moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures.
The federal government this week halted evictions and foreclosures for homeowners with a single-family mortgage backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration-insured single-family mortgages.
This work was made possible in part by grant funding from Report for America/GroundTruth Project and the Foundation For The Carolinas.
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