Nationwide eviction moratorium ends Saturday, leaving many wondering what will happen next

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - President Joe Biden called on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium that the Supreme Court ruled will end on Saturday, July 31.

The moratorium has prohibited landlords nationwide from evicting tenants who fail to pay rent. It first went into effect in September 2020 as protection for tenants who couldn’t pay rent during the pandemic.

The federal moratorium has been extended several times, and now that it’s ending in just a few days, how will it impact local housing and the homeless population?

“I have to think some of our low-income people were kind of hoping, you know, banking on that those extensions, maybe not looking at that endpoint,” said Terri Refsguard, CEO of New Community Shelter in Green Bay.

Local landlords who own 10 different properties in Green Bay and Oshkosh say they will be taking action against some tenants who have been taking advantage of the moratorium in bad faith.

“It’s just really hard when people are taking advantage of the moratorium and that don’t necessarily need it and there are other resources out there as well to help them and they’re not taking advantage of those resources,” said Brendan Baier, property owner.

“New Cap is a wonderful energy assistant program, they come in and they help with energy assistance with those tenants and they also, on top of that, come into the property and make upgrades essentially to make those energy bills a lot less for those tenants,” said Mandy Markusen, realtor and investor at Keller Williams Realty.

Officials with the New Community Shelter say they don’t expect to see an uptick in homelessness right away, but that it will probably be about a month before they start seeing people trickle in the door for their assistance.

“I know we’ve had a couple of people contact us, I will be losing my housing as of the end of the month and wanted to come in and talk about that,” said Refsguard.

Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Administration say there’s still plenty of help available for those at risk of being evicted.

For the assistance program for Brown County residents, click here.

For additional information from the programs with the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), click here.

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