Activists call on state to extend eviction moratorium; immigrants among most at risk

They set up tents, laid out sleeping bags and held banners that said “cancel the rent.”

• Anthony Orozco
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  Anthony Orozco was the Latino communities reporter for WITF.

(Harrisburg) — After Elvia Gonzalez got sick with the coronavirus in the spring her employer, a Chester County mushroom company, told her she no longer had a job.

Her husband also suffered through the coronavirus and took time off work to recover. They wondered how they were going to pay rent.

“I have never missed rent, I’ve always paid on time,” Gonzalez, 37, said in Spanish. “I said, ‘Well, [my landlords] are going to give me a chance to pay rent when I get back to work.”

“[My landlord] said, “No, you have to pay rent, what does being sick have to do with paying rent,’” Gonzalez said. “He said I have to pay because I have to pay.”

She and her husband, both undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, are not entitled to government assistance during the pandemic. They borrowed around several thousand dollars from friends and family to pay rent for their Kenneth Square home and other expenses.

Gonzalez and about 30 other members and organizers with the immigrant advocacy group CASA demonstrated on the steps of the Capitol building in Harrisburg Wednesday, calling for state legislators and Gov. Tom Wolf to extend the evictions moratorium to 90 days past whenever the state’s emergency declaration is lifted.

The group set up tents, laid out sleeping bags and held banners that said “cancel the rent.”

They said with Wolf’s eviction moratorium executive order set to end on Monday, hundreds of thousands of renters across the commonwealth face evictions.

Kyle Rivers, an advocacy specialist with CASA, said immigrants who are not entitled to government assistance will be impacted.

“Immigrant communities are especially at risk of losing their homes, as they are the ones being excluded from any type of state or federal relief and the land of opportunity,” Rivers said.

The national nonpartisan research institute Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says nearly 20 percent of renters in Pennsylvania did not pay rent in August.

So, an estimated 381,000 adults and 731,000 children are potentially at risk of eviction next week across the state, according to the data.

Wolf on Tuesday urged lawmakers to extend the eviction moratorium – since his executive order is scheduled to expire next week. Wolf said Tuesday he does not believe he has the legal authority to extend the eviction suspension.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, issued a statement Tuesday criticizing Wolf for “ruling by executive order” and said Wolf’s call for legislation to extend the moratorium is the first he had heard of the need for emergency legislation.

Corman’s office did not immediately respond to the question of whether Pennsylvanians will see legislation that protects them from eviction past Monday.

“We continue to be open to productive discussions on this and other issues that deserve legislative attention,” Corman said.

Rivers said the state should act.

“Whether someone got sick and caught COVID while working as an essential worker in any given industry, for someone who simply lost their job, like some other 50 million Americans, nobody should be thrown on the street,” Rivers said. “Without direct action from our state legislatures, and the governor, thousands of Pennsylvania families could inhumanely lose their homes”

Anthony Orozco is a Report for America fellow at WITF. Follow him on Twitter @AnthonyOrozco20.