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ASHEVILLE - A judicial order halting all non-essential court proceedings means evictions and foreclosures will be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Chief District Court Judge Calvin Hill said March 17.

The order, issued by North Carolina Chief Justice Cheri Beasley March 13, directed courts to postpone the cases for at least 30 days. Hill said in a county media briefing that judges in Buncombe have been continuing most proceedings for 60, 90 or 120 days.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency also suspended foreclosures and evictions for homeowners with a single-family mortgage backed by lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for at least 60 days due to the coronavirus national emergency.

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Hill said the "situation in the courts, just like everywhere else, is changing literally minute-to-minute."

"So (March 16), when we got to work there were a few eviction cases that were already in the pipeline," he said. "Those cases will probably be processed. But as of about 4 o'clock (March 16), we are not processing any eviction matters."

Impacting the most vulnerable

Denise Lockett is an attorney with the state Legal Aid’s Asheville-based Senior Law Project and handles eviction cases for seniors in Buncombe County.

She said Beasley’s order was “huge for (the Senior Law Project’s) client base,” most of whom are 60 and older.

"They tend to be living on the thinnest of margins," she said. Many don't have families or caregivers in the area. They often are dealing with multiple medical issues, she said, which makes them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

“Especially in the midst of this crisis, having a stable home is central to protecting the public and the individual," she said.

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Lockett said she's had clients lose appeals and become homeless in Buncombe, so she knows the challenges people could face locally.

"There is a dearth of affordable housing; there are lots of folks who are afraid to be in shelter situations, particularly now, given the instruction to stay six feet away," she said.

"... (My clients) face perilous conditions and they don't have access to regular, routine health care. I think that anything that local governments can do and the state government can do to give them a safety net and prevent homelessness is huge."

Hoping for further guidance, action

Lockett said some people are still being locked out because their eviction cases were processed prior to Beasley's order. She hopes to see further guidance issued on those matters but that any change would likely need to come from local or state government.

Asked if Buncombe could see a huge uptick in evictions once the COVID-19 emergency passes, Lockett said it isn't clear how the order will play out in the long run.

"It's not as if the floodgates are necessarily going to open," she said. "I think the federal government is looking at what are the humane options given the fact that a lot of people are going to be unemployed.

"... I'm hopeful that both local governments and the federal government will continue to work together to avoid unnecessarily harsh consequences for low-income individuals.”

Measure simply delays 'big problems'

Pisgah Legal Services Jim Barrett Executive Director isn't so optimistic. He said the benefits of Beasley's order are that it encourages more social distancing and temporarily helps those who are out-of-work due to the efforts to prevent COVID-19 spread.

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But he said the measure simply delays "some pretty big problems." He sees it as likely that Buncombe will experience a surge of evictions and foreclosures after the pandemic passes, particularly "if this extends for a long time."

"The risk is that people who already don’t have enough income to meet their expenses will be tempted to not pay the rent and pay other bills, which would be a mistake," he said. "The credit card bills can be stretched out, for example, whereas the rent probably shouldn’t be."

'We need some good news'

What's more, Barrett said the order does not address the bigger financial issue many in the community will be facing.

"It’s fair to say we need a break," he said. "We need some good news on how fast this is spreading or extraordinary government action to buy time for people who are losing their job to provide income for them to get by."

More:Coronavirus: North Carolina expands unemployment benefits

In the meantime, he said individuals should make an effort to prioritize paying rent and turn to resources available through mediums like the state's 211 line, Manna Food Bank and PLS's resource page.

Barrett said he hopes social distancing will buy time for people to adjust to the new financial situation, but he said he's concerned for "the people who are living on the margin, the low-income people, people who are in the food industry and the tourist industry, those businesses where they are losing income by the day."

He said it's important to reach out to those people and "a good time for people who can support nonprofits that are on the front lines to keep doing that because the demand is going to be very great. We can tell."

Mackenzie Wicker covers Buncombe County for the Asheville Citizen Times. You can reach her at mwicker@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter @MackWick.

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