PA Eviction Moratorium Timeline

• March 18: PA Supreme Court closes local courts and halts evictions.

• March 27: CARES Act eviction moratorium begins.

• April 1: PA Supreme Court order extended.

• May 7: Gov. Wolf enacts eviction moratorium via executive order.

• July 9: Gov. Wolf extends PA eviction moratorium through August 31, 2020.

• July 24: CARES Act eviction moratorium expires.

• September 1: PA eviction moratorium expires.

• September 4: CDC eviction moratorium goes into effect, through December 31, 2020.

• December 27: Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 signed into law, extending the eviction moratorium until January 31, 2021.

• January 20: President Biden extends CDC eviction moratorium through March 31, 2021.

• March 29: The CDC extends the eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021.

• July 30: The Biden administration extends the eviction moratorium through July 31, 2021.

• August 3: The CDC issues an eviction moratorium for areas with substantial and high COVID-19 transmission. This order was set to expire on October 3rd.

• August 27: The Supreme Court overturns the eviction moratorium.

Protecting tenants and fighting for our communities

The mission of the Landlord Watchlist Project (LWP) is to hold predatory landlords and property managers accountable for placing tenants in danger during the COVID-19 pandemic. LWP will collect extensive data and conduct interviews regarding cases of landlord or property manager negligence with the end goal of publicizing important findings in an accessible and accountable manner.

LWP was launched in December 2020 to serve Pennsylvanian renters facing eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are a progressive grassroots organization that believes that housing is a human right. LWP advocates for rent cancellation and closing eviction moratorium loopholes.

We support tenants by connecting them to mutual aid and legal, and financial resources. These PA-specific resources, run by organizations and advocates across the Commonwealth, are available here. We encourage tenants to fill out our form (en español) to receive more personalized assistance.

Evictions pose an existential threat to tenants and their communities

States that lifted moratoriums on evictions during the summer, before the CDC’s current eviction moratorium, have seen 5.4 times more pandemic-related fatalities than states with moratoriums (UCLA).

LWP is committed to serving over 443,200 “extremely low income” renter households, which include Black and Brown families, women, children, seniors, the disability community, LGBTQ+, and undocumented immigrants.

The federal eviction moratorium contains loopholes

The current federal eviction moratorium is insufficient for many renters. Tenants can be evicted for a breach of lease or termination of term. Pennsylvania landlords continue to file eviction cases in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tenant-landlord legal representation gap is widening

“In eviction lawsuits nationwide, an estimated 90 percent of landlords have legal representation, while only 10 percent of tenants do” (Schultheis and Rooney). The typical eviction case puts represented landlords against unrepresented tenants, disproportionately targeting low-income, Black and Brown families.

A 2016 preliminary study of Pittsburgh eviction proceedings found that landlords were more than six times as likely as tenants to be represented by legal counsel (Community Justice Project). Philadelphia Community Legal Services found that each dollar invested in tenant representation saved the City of Philadelphia nearly $13 dollars.

“Right to counsel would cost about $3.5 million and save the City [of Philadelphia] $45 million in costs of services.”

Rasheedah Phillips, Managing Attorney of Housing Policy, Community Legal Service