“It’s very stressful just thinking I’m going to get evicted with my children,” said Tamar Bultron, who owes $9,600 in back rent and faces eviction from her East Orange apartment. New Jersey’s two-year moratorium on pandemic-related evictions expired at the end of December. And like thousands of other tenants who have since run out of time and money, Bultron has a hearing in landlord-tenant court.
Low-income tenants still can’t be evicted if they missed rent between March 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021 — and certified their status with the state. But there’s no similar pandemic-related eviction protection this year. And eviction numbers are rising. “The rental assistance that the state was so successful at getting into the hands of people who most needed it has run out,” said advocate Catherine Weiss. “People who cannot pay their rent — either for COVID-related reasons or otherwise — are not receiving rental assistance and are subject to eviction.”
