***For Immediate Release***
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Contact: Magdalena Cazarez
Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed
O: (402) 438-8853 ext 119
C: (402) 504-0074
mcazarez@neappleseed.org
Statement from Executive Director Becky Gould on Governor Ricketts Allowing Evictions to Proceed
LINCOLN, NE – Today, Governor Ricketts, during his daily press conference on COVID-19 response measures, announced he would not extend the existing Executive Order 20-07 protecting tenants who have been impacted by COVID-19 from being evicted during the pandemic. In response, Nebraska Appleseed Executive Director Becky Gould issued the following statement:
“In a time when families are still struggling with unemployment and putting food on the table, we need to be extending and improving protections to insulate Nebraskans from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, without presenting an alternative solution, the Governor has prematurely chosen to end one of the most important protections currently in place.
Before considering allowing the moratorium to expire, there should be better protections in place to support families and allow them to afford their rent payments, particularly utilizing federal coronavirus response resources to set up a rental assistance fund. This assistance would be crucial to help Nebraskans make ends meet, particularly given the well-documented backlog of unemployed Nebraskans who have yet to receive unemployment benefits. The Governor’s decision to end the protections of the eviction moratorium without an alternative solution is tone-deaf to the real challenges facing Nebraskans and is likely to result in large scale evictions while the spread of coronavirus through the state is still accelerating.
We call on the Governor to reconsider extending the moratorium and to act quickly to set up a rental assistance program to ensure Nebraskans can remain safe and in their own homes.”
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