Arizona Humane Society plans to provide fostering and pet health-care for pets involved in eviction

The CDC’s Eviction Moratorium ends at the end of the year, which means a number of Arizonans could find themselves without a home. Many of those people have pets.

What happens to pets when their owners are evicted? We spoke with Dr. Steven Hansen, President of the Arizona Humane Society.

“There certainly are a lot of families that have pets out there and we currently estimate that somewhere between 20% and 30% of renters could be affected by this eviction crisis should it happen, and the outcome is that there are several thousand pets every month, that may be in need of temporary shelter,” said Hansen.

According to the Arizona Humane Society call center, an issue that is common among pet owners is finding pet-friendly housing in Arizona, let alone affordable housing.

Due to the pandemic, finding a pet-friendly home has become even more difficult.

“It’s very much an increasing issue especially right now with these tough times we’ve got a lot of families that are struggling, a lot of people out of work,” said Hansen.

The Arizona Humane Society is expecting a large surge in animals who need a home if this eviction moratorium is lifted. They are creating a pet housing crisis task force with several partners to address and prepare for the crisis.

Another program being put into place is an expanded foster care program.

Arizona Humane Society has been in contact with several hundred families who are willing to take in animals for a specified amount of time to help pet-owners who are in a housing transition phase.

The Arizona Humane Society is also looking into providing pet food pantries for owners as well as providing reduced animal health-care.

A website will also be launched soon to connect pet-owners to resources.

“This is so important to communicate what resources are there because we do want those families to get repositioned, and we want them to do it while they know that their pet is safe,” said Hansen.