Extend moratorium on evictions and foreclosures through July 25

May 5, 2020

Dear Governor Ron DeSantis:

The Florida Housing Coalition, Florida’s nonprofit statewide provider of training and technical assistance, thanks you again for recommending full funding for Florida’s State and Local Affordable Housing Trust Fund programs. The full appropriation of funding for SHIP and SAIL could not come at a better time. SHIP is already being used to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Local governments are currently deploying reprogrammed State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) dollars for emergency rental and mortgage assistance in accordance with the flexibility that provided for disaster assistance to help residents who may have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Now more than ever – housing is healthcare.

We also thank you for your leadership in halting evictions and foreclosures on residential properties for non-payment of rent through May 17 in Executive Order 20-94. This action was necessary to protect the health and safety of Florida’s residents.

We respectfully ask that you extend the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures through July 25 to align with the CARES Act. Under the CARES Act, residents in properties assisted with federal dollars are protected from eviction through that date. Aligning the state’s moratorium with the CARES Act would assure tenants and homeowners that they will not lose their homes during the public health crisis and ease confusion about which properties qualify for protection.

Should you or your staff have any questions, we would be happy to assist.

Respectfully,

JAIMIE A. ROSS
President/CEO

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