The national eviction moratorium that once kept millions of renters in their homes is gone, and the patchwork of state and local rules that replaced it is shrinking fast.
As of this spring, only a handful of jurisdictions still impose meaningful limits on evictions, and most of those come with expiration dates already circled on the calendar.
For renters, the practical result is a system where your protection depends almost entirely on your ZIP code.
A tenant in Minneapolis may have counsel guaranteed in housing court, while a tenant two states away can be removed in weeks with no lawyer and no mediation.
The numbers tell a story that housing advocates say is only getting worse.
Eviction filings in several major metros have climbed past pre-pandemic levels, according to court data tracked by Princeton's Eviction Lab.
In places like Houston, Phoenix, and parts of Florida, filings are running 20 to 50 percent above 2019 averages.
Federal emergency rental assistance — the money that kept people current — has largely been spent or clawed back.
The CDC's eviction order was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2021.
And the Biden-era push for a permanent eviction limit never made it through Congress.
Landlord groups argue the pendulum has swung too far the other way for too long.
They point to small property owners who carried mortgages through two years of nonpayment, then faced years of backlogged courts. "The moratorium didn't erase rent," one industry lobbyist told a trade publication. "It deferred it, and now the bill is due." That's technically true, but it skips the part where the bill landed on renters who never had the money in the first place.
Wages for the bottom third of earners have trailed rent growth in most metros for a decade.
A moratorium pause didn't create that gap — it just hid it.
What renters should actually watch now is local, not national.
City councils in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles have debated right-to-counsel ordinances that guarantee a lawyer in eviction court.
Studies in New York and Cleveland found that tenants with representation are far more likely to stay in their homes or negotiate a manageable exit.
Meanwhile, several states have quietly expanded "notice to quit" periods — the window between a missed payment and a court filing.
In Washington State it's now 14 days; in Oregon, 10.
Longer notice doesn't stop an eviction, but it buys time to find aid, negotiate, or move without a sheriff at the door.
Fake "eviction relief" outfits are charging desperate renters hundreds of dollars for paperwork they can file themselves for free.
Legal aid offices in Atlanta and Las Vegas report a spike in complaints about these operations.
If you're behind on rent, the boring advice is still the best advice: contact your local legal aid office before you contact anyone who charges a fee.
Ask your landlord for a payment plan in writing.
And check whether your city has a rental assistance program still accepting applications — many do, and the funds go unspent every year because people assume they're gone.
The bigger picture is that the safety net for renters was always temporary and political.
It was never designed to survive an election cycle, let alone a court challenge.
Anyone counting on a new federal moratorium should stop counting. **Our take:** The eviction crisis isn't a policy failure that snuck up on anyone — it's the predictable result of choosing temporary relief over addressing why so many renters can't cover a surprise $500.
Final Thoughts
Until wages and housing supply catch up, every moratorium is just a pause button on a problem that keeps resuming.