The Washington Post reports on the end Friday of a moratorium on evictions of people who live in housing backed by federally insured mortgages.

The moratorium covers renters who live in homes with federally backed mortgages, which the Urban Institute estimates to be 12.3 million households, or about 30 percent of all renters nationwide. Once the moratorium lapses, landlords can give their delinquent tenants 30 days’ notice and then begin filing eviction paperwork in late August.

This is terrible, but, ironically, somewhat less terrible in Arkansas for all the wrong reasons.

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Arkansas is the worst state for renters in the country. Landlords need not provide habitable premises. We have the only criminal eviction statute in the country and, while declared unconstitutional in some counties, it is still in use in others. Civil evictions are easily done without a court proceeding. Renter advocates have noted the federal moratorium has proved meaningless for some tenants of landlords with only small rental properties. They have no ready means of determining without expense if they live in a house backed by a federal mortgage. At the state level, Governor Hutchinson has steadfastly refused to help renters, though he’s doled out millions to businesses.

You couldn’t have asked for a better example of Arkansas’s heartlessness than the meeting of the Little Rock Board of Directors last night.

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It got a cheer — a cheer! — for moving to table Director Ken Richardson’s resolution urging landlords to consider a moratorium on evictions and not reporting tenants to credit agencies during the coronavirus crisis.

This resolution had NO legal effect. None. Zero. Zip. it drew votes only from Richardson, Erma Hendrix and Kathy Webb. It was disingenuous to hear several directors say more time was needed for study because of some minor amendments. People might be confused, Director Doris Wright said. What? They might think there was a chance they had a sympathetic landlord?

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Nothing was confusing about this debate. The real estate lobby controls the City Board. Always has. (Whatever happened to that idea to change the form of city government to ward representation?)

Richardson said during the debate:

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“This is us going on record saying that we are concerned about the effects of this pandemic on all of our citizens.”

Indeed. The city board spoke eloquently last night on its concern for all citizens.