DALLAS (AP) — Not long after he began posting advice last year for people facing eviction during the pandemic, Mark Melton found himself inundated with phone calls and messages.
“It became apparent really quickly that this was going to be too much of a job for one person,” said Melton, a Dallas tax attorney who decided to study up on eviction law as COVID-19 began taking an economic toll on Texas residents.
Since then, Melton has recruited over 175 attorneys who have assisted more than 6,000 people. His team has helped renters understand the protections put in place to temporarily stop evictions and how to access government funds to pay rent. They’ve found themselves doing everything from negotiating with landlords to representing renters in court to helping them get groceries.
Melton’s efforts come as more than 4 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction or foreclosure in the next two months, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. In Texas, that number is more than 250,000.
A federal moratorium on evictions that was extended through June by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to protect most tenants but is being interpreted in different ways from state to state. Additionally, tenant advocates say landlords are still finding ways to evict tenants, and many renters often show up in court without any…
