Maricopa County Justice Courts report the number of eviction filings in the county in 2023 was up more than 20% from pre-pandemic levels. And the trend appears to be continuing in the wrong direction in 2024. Maricopa County landlords filed 8,025 evictions in January — the most ever for a single month.
Families with young children and older adults are especially strained by rising housing costs, said Pam Bridge, director of advocacy and litigation with Community Legal Services, which provides legal help to tenants.
"What we keep seeing since COVID is, at the end of their lease term, they get a 30-day notice of a substantial rent increase that they just can’t afford," Bride told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
Rental assistance is available to some qualifying households through Arizona’s Department of Economic Security. But Bridge said it's important that tenants seek help quickly if they think they’re going to be evicted.
"Because evictions in Arizona are one of the shortest processes for eviction hearings in the entire country, it’s really important that tenants really try, when they find out that there’s a chance they’re being evicted, that they reach out for those resources," Bridge said.
Judge Sharron Sauls is Justice of the Peace to the Kyrene Justice Court precinct, the county’s busiest for eviction filings. She said she makes it a priority to inform tenants about available resources. But she said current Arizona law gives her little leeway to stop evictions.
"We cannot judge on empathy or sympathy, we can only judge on the rule of law," Sauls said.
