The rise in landlord-tenant issues during COVID-19 has been most pronounced in southern and northeastern states; new analyses show that increase is driven largely by a handful of states. In the south, requests to 211 helplines for assistance with landlord-tenant issues were 18 times higher in South Carolina in 2020 (orange line in chart) compared to 2019 (blue line). Large gains were also seen in North Carolina (+818%) and Florida (+93%). In the northeast, requests were up most in Massachusetts (+609%), Pennsylvania (+221%), Maryland (+144%) and New Jersey (+129%). Several states (MA, MD, PA, FL, SC) saw dramatic increases in landlord-tenant issues starting in the fall, as eviction bans expired. Other states (NJ, NC) saw sustained increases in requests throughout the course of the pandemic. Analyses included 53,120 requests for landlord-tenant issues received by 211s in 16 states in the South and Northeast. Data were from 211 Counts, a daily tracking system of community needs used by 211s in 38 states. Only phone requests were included in analyses. Mouse over each line in each chart to see the number of requests received in each month and year.
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