The No Eviction Without Representation campaign is pushing to land an eviction legal defense fund initiative on the November 2021 ballot for Denver. It’s really a humanitarian issue. It is hugely disruptive to a person’s life to be evicted. We’re seeing higher rates of joblessness, of hunger. It’s a lot harder to access resources when you’ve been evicted. On top of that, you’ve got a really damaging effect on your credit score and lower likelihood of being able to rent again, says Ruby Leigh Pierce, an organizer with the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and a campaign proponent.
Some pandemic-related protections for renters remain in place, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s temporary moratorium on residential evictions.
The program began in September to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It was to have ended Jan. 31, but has been extended by the Biden administration through March 31.
Though the program doesn’t prevent all evictions, it has significantly decreased them in El Paso County.
The Sheriff’s Office completed 502 court-ordered writs of execution in 2020, compared with 1,217 in 2019, said spokeswoman Jacqueline Reed. That s a 59% decrease.
The order gives tenants who are behind in rent payments notice that they have three days to leave the property with their belongings, or deputies will remove their possessions and sell the items for repayment to the landlord.