Editor’s note: The Virginia Supreme Court rejected an extension of the moratorium on evictions until Oct. 1, as Gov. Ralph S. Northam had requested. The court’s order, issued on Friday, Sept. 4, allows lower courts to restart evictions after Labor Day. Five of the seven justices supported the ruling. Only Justices Cleo E. Powell and William C. Mims dissented.

Legal Services Corp. of Virginia, also known as Legal Aid, has received a $4 million grant from the state that could allow the organization to hire an additional 20 attorneys to support tenants facing court action from landlords seeking to evict them for nonpayment.

Gov. Ralph S. Northam announced the grant Monday, with $2 million to come from a COVID- 19 relief fund the state established through a tax on the now legal electronic slot machines set up in convenience stores, truck stops and other outlets.

The remaining $2 million is from a donation by the IKEA U.S. Community Foundation, the charity arm of the giant furniture maker and retailer.

This is the latest step for the governor, who has secured two court-ordered moratoriums on evictions and also pumped $50 million in federal CARES Act funds into support for an eviction diversion effort. That effort has aided more than 3,100 families, according to a statement from Gov. Northam’s office.

The new effort to boost legal help for people facing eviction comes amid concern about an impending wave of evictions, although the size of the problem remains uncertain.

The RVA Eviction Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University has suggested that potentially 262,000 households, or about 8.4 percent of the state’s 3.12 million households, are at risk of eviction based on projections of those foregoing rent or mortgage payments in August and estimates of those who did not pay in previous months.

While a Virginia Supreme Court three-week moratorium on evictions is to end on Labor Day so that sheriffs’ departments could resume removal work on Tuesday, Sept. 8, many who are behind on rent are being helped by a separate federal moratorium on evictions that has been extended to Dec. 31.

That moratorium temporarily halts evictions for nonpayment of rent from public housing and a host of other apartment developments that have government-supported mortgages or receive government housing subsidies from Housing Choice Vouchers that pay a share of rent.

The moratorium also applies to homeowners struggling to pay mortgages obtained through federal housing agencies or those with loans backed by government-supported mortgage buyers such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Other help could come from the General Assembly, which is meeting in special session, although it may be less than hoped for. Both the House of Delegates and the state Senate have passed separate bills that would require landlords to offer structured repayment plans to tenants who are in arrears on rent before seeking to evict.

More aggressive bills to support cash-strapped tenants appear to have been sidetracked, including one that would provide an eviction moratorium until April 2021.

Gov. Northam said the $4 million grant should “help more Virginians stay in their homes as we fight this virus,” given that people represented by an attorney are considered more likely to do better in court than those who are not.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus hailed the agreement as a step in the right direction to help people remain in their homes and prevent evictions.

Henrico Delegate Lamont Bagby, VLBC chairman, cheered the public-private partnership and described it as one piece “of a multifaceted approach our Commonwealth should be adopting in order to address these underlying, systemic issues related to evictions and housing.”

“Affordable housing for all Virginians is essential to building an equitable economy,” Prince William Delegate Luke Torian, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, commented in a VLBC statement.

“During the pandemic,” he continued, “the need for housing is essential to our public health response. The grant announcement shows Virginia is bolstering its commitment to reducing evictions and keeping families safe in our homes.

“The General Assembly and the governor continue to make changes to the law to reduce evictions,” he stated, “but these new protections require legal representation — so that both landlords and tenants know their rights and responsibilities.”