The Orange County Sheriff’s Office will cease evictions during the coronavirus pandemic, following closures and cancellations that have left many of the county’s service and tourism industry workers without pay.
The agency said “because of the State of Emergency related to coronavirus, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office will temporarily suspend all eviction activities until further notice,” in a release sent out Monday afternoon. The decision means officers won’t be serving tenants with eviction papers or assisting landlords by removing tenants in Orange County or its municipalities, including Orlando.
In Orange County, about 223,433 households are renters, according to the latest data from the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center.
Sheriff’s offices in Lake, Seminole and Osceola counties have not altered their eviction practices.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office announced last week it was suspending evictions during the coronavirus outbreak. Last year, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the county would not be “not be evicting anybody during a time of emergency,” the Miami Herald reported, after a 75-year-old South Beach woman and her family were evicted days before Hurricane Dorian was expected to hit.
Major utilities providers have also said they will not shut off services during this time.
Duke Energy and the Orlando Utilities Commission said last week that customers won’t have their electric service suspended for nonpayment. Duke Energy has about 380,000 customers in Orange County alone, and OUC provides services to about 400,000 customers in Orlando, St. Cloud and parts of unincorporated Orange and Osceola counties.
Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said she has been discussing the need to halt evictions with Orange County Sheriff John Mina and was glad to see the agency’s decision.
“I’m very happy to see that he took the suggestion seriously and followed through,” Eskamani said. “It’s critically important during this moment of economic uncertainty and during a public health crisis that folks have a place to call home. The last thing we want people to worry about is not being able to pay rent on time.”
“Hopefull this type of position taken by the Orange County Sheriff will also motivate landlords to wait at this time before serving evictions,” Eskamani said. “Hopefully Orange County’s decision will be a domino effect.”
Kim Cannaday, a spokeswoman for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency is still carrying out evictions but said there have been discussions about temporarily halting those activities. Jacob Ruiz said the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office will “proceed as required by the court and court order should we receive such order from the court,” although he noted some court hearings are being rescheduled.
The sheriff’s office in Lake County has yet to announce changes to its eviction practices and did not immediately return requests for comment.
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