The first of the month is coming again

The city's ban on evictions is technically supposed to expire on May 4.  Which is to say you can be evicted this coming month for having missed rent while a stay-at-home order due to expire May 15 is still in effect. You could actually be evicted the whole time, if your landlord happens to be this particular sort of asshole. But pretty soon it won't make much difference.  It's time to pay up all that money you haven't been able to go earn or else hit the road.

That is, unless somebody does something. 

Thousands of jobless New Orleans residents unable to afford their rent due to coronavirus-related shutdowns are facing the end of another month when payments are due. And with stay-at-home orders still in effect, housing advocates are calling on city judges to extend the eviction halt currently set to expire next week.

A coalition of groups wants the 1st and 2nd City Courts to stop evictions until Aug. 24, long past when state and city leaders hope to reopen the economy. In a letter to judges sent Friday, they argue that New Orleans courts risk creating an administrative nightmare if they don't extend the ban due in part to federal rules banning some evictions until late July.

I dunno. August 24 doesn't sound all that "long past" the May 15 date in terms of rent payments.  Especially during the summer when nothing is happening. Especially during this summer when an extreme amount of nothing will be happening.  Maybe we should ask the judges what they think.

If judges restart evictions before Aug. 24, they will be forced to sift through paperwork to determine whether properties are covered under the CARES Act, Reed said.

The call to extend the eviction moratorium was signed by thirty-five groups, including Disability Rights Louisiana, the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, the New Orleans Family Justice Center and United Way of Southeast Louisiana.

Veronica Henry, the chief judge of 1st City Court, declined through a spokesman to comment on the letter.

That's a shame.  Well they're going to have to talk about it at some point. 

Hey! Did you know that one of these judgeships is up for election this summer?  That's right.  When you receive your very convenient unnecessarily complicated mail-in ballot or don your protective space suit to step out and confront a (probably) well sanitized voting machine on April 4 June 25 July 11 (probably! we really hope!) you will find a  very long ballot to decipher. The very long ballot will, of course, include the names of several individuals who are no longer competing in a now irrelevant Presidential primary. Then, there will be an extremely long list of names you've never heard of belonging to people seeking positions you may not care very much about on the executive committees of the parish and state Democratic and Republican parties.  Only after you have managed to read all the way down to the bottom of all that, will you find candidates for First City Court Section B. (Currently occupied on a temporary basis by... get this... Nadine  Ramsey)  A few of them have already dropped out. As of this writing, the active candidates are Aylin Acikalin, Robbins Graham, Schalyece Harrison, Marissa Hutabarat, and Sara Lewis.  

Don't know anything about those folks yet?  Well, get to it.  You've only got three more rent due days to go before you have to make your mind up.