By Hope Shrum
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — After multiple extensions because of the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, the moratoriums on evictions and utilities shut offs will end Friday.

At its meeting Thursday, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission declined to extend the moratorium, which barred the state’s public utilities from disconnecting consumers who are behind in their payments.

However, the IURC did require the utilities to work out payment plans with people who owe money. For 60 days, until Oct. 12, Hoosiers will have a minimum of six months to take care of these extended payment arrangements. The commission also suspended collection of certain utility fees, including late fees, deposits, and disconnection and reconnection fees until Oct. 12 as well.

Dr. Woody Myers, Democratic candidate for governor, said the IURC along with Gov. Eric Holcomb failed to take action to safeguard Hoosiers from utility shutoffs.

“As we are again seeing record numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, access to utility services is a critical component of the most basic public health initiatives—otherwise Hoosiers can’t wash their hands and continue to maintain access to basic human services including internet as we learn and work from home,” Myers said in a statement released after the IURC meeting.

The end of the moratorium for utility shut offs and evictions comes as Indiana continues to experience a rising number of COVID-19 cases and job layoffs because so many companies have seen business decline through months of the pandemic.

On Thursday, the Indiana State Department of Health reported 1,046 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 77,565 confirmed cases. The virus has killed 2,898 Hoosiers, 20 more than the previous day.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take the lives of people across the world, an analysis published online in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found that during the early months of the pandemic, the increase in deaths in New York City challenges the death toll from the peak of the 1918 flu pandemic.

The comparison said that the number of deaths during the first 61 days of the COVID-19 pandemic is nearly the same as that of deaths from all causes during the two peak months of the flu pandemic just over a century ago.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed 50 million people worldwide, and about 675,000 people in the United States. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, more than 746,000 people have died around the world so far, about 162,000 of them in the United States, according to a tally kept by the Washington Post.

Although the eviction and utility shut off moratoriums are ending, job loss continues to be a problem for Hoosiers, with more than 10,500 initial claims for unemployment insurance filed the week ending Aug. 8.

To help Hoosiers avoid eviction, the state allocated $40 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act to a rental assistance fund. The rental assistance program is available for everyone in Indiana except for Marion County, which has its own program to help renters.

“First and foremost, we want to make sure that we’re addressing the need that is out there,” Holcomb said Wednesday at his weekly COVID-19 press briefing. He added that although the moratorium is ending, the state is providing help for those in need, including encouraging people who are behind to work with landlords and the utilities on a payment plan.

Hope Shrum is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.