Long-term tenants tossed from New Orleans motels despite order halting evictions during pandemic

Jaronda Hinton has heard over and over that she can’t be evicted. Her friends, neighbors and the lawyers trying to keep her housed say she can't be kicked out, not while the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.

“But today is the day they say the rent is due,” she said this week. “We’re supposed to be out by noon. I’m trying to come up with the funds, but it’s stressful. I don’t know what to do.”

Hinton lives at the InTown Suites Extended Stay in Metairie along with dozens of other people, many of whom lost jobs after the pandemic forced the closure of businesses and crippled New Orleans’ tourism-dependent economy. Despite a March 18 order from Gov. John Bel Edwards suspending evictions during the pandemic, there’s been a spike in the number of hotel tenants evicted or threatened with evictions over the past two weeks, said Alexis Erkert, a lawyer with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.

Her office has received calls from extended-stay tenants living in at least a dozen hotels and motels in the New Orleans area since the coronavirus hit Louisiana.

Read more: https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_6cdadbfc-7c36-11ea-a7bb-3bbefbb0c361.html