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Evictions piling up in Tennessee with moratorium ended

Advocates said they have seen around 150 evictions per week, and said many tenants may not be fully informed about their legal options.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Evictions in Tennessee continue to rise since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium ended in July. Even though the CDC issued a new moratorium, it does not apply in Tennessee because of a sixth circuit federal court ruling.

The ruling is leaving many Tennesseans in a bad spot, especially ones that have been behind on rent for months. 

Attorney Zac Oswald with Legal Aid Society says people facing eviction need to follow three steps: 

  1. Apply for rent relief immediately
  2. Go to court explaining your situation to a judge, landlord and attorneys
  3. Reach out to an attorney at Legal Aid Society

Both Oswald and the advocacy group Red Door Collective say many people being served a detainer warrant for not paying their rent don't know what to do and think they have no one on their side. 

Because of that, Oswald says these people might not follow the process correctly, and might either skip court or vacate the property and have an eviction on their permanent record, which in turn may prevent them from renting again. 

Red Door Collective says they've been looking at all the current detainer warrant data. They said there are around 150 evictions per week.

In July alone, they say almost 640 detainer warrants were filed with 526 eviction rulings.  

“The detainer warrant is meant to be a notification of a court date but so many times, we see detainer warrants that are being put on people’s doors and it doesn’t have the court date on it or it will say something like earliest Tuesday which technically means the earliest date the plaintiffs lawyer shows us," said Jack Marr with Red Door Collective. “We know from the data, the vast majority of judgments are awarding possession; they're awarding the eviction because they're by default. We’re tracking the judgments and like 75% of the time, the reason why people are kicked out of their homes is because they didn’t show up to court.” 

That's why Marr and Oswald say it's so important for tenants to find their court date and make sure they show up. There is no mechanism in the state to expunge an eviction off of a tenant record. 

Click here to learn more about Legal Aid Society and here to learn more about Red Door Collective. 

This story was originally reported by WSMV in Nashville.

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