SANTA FE, N.M. - During the 2021 session, New Mexico lawmakers are expected to focus heavily on pandemic relief - including a bill that would modernize the housing code with the goal of reducing evictions.

Co-sponsored by Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, House Bill 111 addresses the time frame for evictions, increasing the current three-day notice to 10 days and allowing courts more flexibility by lengthening the time for an eviction hearing. Rubio said the changes would give people who are struggling financially time to make arrangements that would allow them to stay in their home.

"People are in a position right now where they are in their homes, they are trying to make it work," she said, "and we don't want to increase the number of people who are living without shelter."

Another proposal would prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to a person using the Housing Choice Voucher Program under Section 8 if they otherwise are eligible based on their income.

The modernization bill is supported by the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness. For homeless individuals who have found temporary shelter in motels, said Brie Sillery, the group's communications strategist, the legislation could lower barriers to help them find a more permanent housing solution.

"When we have homeless people that stabilize," she said, "losing that stabilization and having that re-traumatization of going onto the street can be very detrimental."

Rubio said the proposed legislation also would create a council model so that in the future a group could work with state government on overall housing issues, rather than tackling them piecemeal, "because there is not centralized person or individual or department that oversees housing and collaborates with agencies across the state."

Security has been heightened at the Roundhouse this week, with fencing and barricades as a precaution after some lawmakers reported credible and specific threats of violence. That has limited attendees to lawmakers, legislative staff and credentialed reporters.

Washingtonians are feeling the squeeze from high housing prices, but a novel concept launching in Spokane could speed up the creation of affordable housing.

The Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium (SLIHC) is creating a land bank to acquire land and set it aside for affordable housing. The land bank was launched in part with a $45,000 grant from the GoWest Foundation, which works with credit unions in the West.

Ezra Eckhardt, president of STCU, formerly the Spokane Teachers Credit Union, which is part of the land-bank effort, explained the program's goals.

"SLIHC would be the centerpiece of a clearinghouse to acquire both public and private land, with the specific intent of building affordable housing and workforce housing to support the needs of the community," Eckhardt stated.

Eckhardt pointed out the land bank, as a nonprofit organization, can acquire surplus property at discounted values more easily than individuals.

The completion of the North Spokane Corridor in the next five years is expected to free up parcels of land for affordable housing. Eckhardt argued it is also important to construct high-density housing outside of highway corridors, where it is typically located.

"We want to take a mindful eye on how the projects themselves are sourced and located using the concept of the land bank to tap into all of the available surplus land that is located here in our community," Eckhardt emphasized.

Even so, Eckhardt noted the region still is years away from fixing its housing woes.

"The land bank is a good, innovative idea," Eckhardt stressed. "We look forward to finding other ideas to be able to support that, and accelerate the timeline on the construction projects."

In the first six months of this year, the U.S. saw a significant jump in foreclosure filings, coinciding with concerns about the pressure inflation is putting on homeowners.

A national tracking firm recently reported nearly 165,000 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, more than double the same time last year. The uptick follows the expiration of pandemic moratoriums and forbearance programs, but analysts say spikes in consumer costs are not helping.

Joe Mahon, regional outreach director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said it affects borrowers in different ways.

"It causes people to cut back on the more discretionary parts of their budget," Mahon observed. "If you're low income, you don't necessarily have a lot of discretionary spending, so there's not necessarily a lot of room to cut."

Mahon pointed out even though wages have been rising sharply, they have not kept up with inflation, hurting a person's chances to get caught up on budget concerns, such as overdue payments.

Around the state, the Minnesota Homeownership Center has partnerships with nearly 20 organizations offering free financial counseling to avoid foreclosure.

While gas prices have been trending downward, Mahon noted they are still higher than they were a year ago and homeowners might also be reeling from other energy price hikes, including natural gas and the cost of heating their home.

"Unless we see a dramatic reversal in natural gas and heating oil prices, expect higher heating costs this winter, as well," Mahon cautioned. "That's one of those things that you can only trim your spending on that so much."

As for foreclosure filings, Minnesota is in the middle pack among states for the first half of 2022, during which the real estate data company ATTOM said more than 2,100 properties around the state were in foreclosure.

With Virginia's Rent Relief Program ending, a flood of eviction cases has emerged.

Established during the pandemic, the program was designed to help tenants who were having trouble paying their rent, but it stopped accepting applications in mid-May. Prior to the closure, landlords could have informed tenants who were behind on their rent about the program, and could even apply for it on their behalf.

Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said when she spoke with tenants, she found something entirely different.

"They have filed all their paperwork to get the emergency rental assistance," Marra observed. "And when they call to check on the status of their application because they have an eviction hearing coming up, the people who run the program tell them that they haven't received the necessary paperwork from the landlord."

The Rent Relief Program has also seen delays in processing applications. Marra feels some problems could be prevented if landlords continued to give tenants a 14-day grace period. The grace period put in place by the legislature ended June 30. Marra cited the growing number of eviction cases as a good reason for an ongoing rental assistance program in the state.

Another factor in the eviction spike is a lack of affordable housing for Virginia renters. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, a person working at the state minimum wage of $9.50 an hour would have to work 88 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at the average market rate of just over $1,000 a month.

Marra believes the height of the pandemic was a better time for tenant law.

"I think we have a system that I think everybody now knows is not tenant-friendly," Marra asserted. "It became more tenant-friendly during the pandemic. But unfortunately, most of the improvements that were made to the landlord-tenant law in Virginia during the pandemic were time-limited, and they expired."

She added Virginia renters would also benefit from a state-funded housing voucher program, and more funding allocated for the federal Housing Choice voucher program.