In addition, evictions will lead to higher rates of the pandemic and more homeless
Millions of workers laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic have been unable to pay rent for their homes, and although authorities have approved moratoriums on evictions, these protections are due to expire in late August, leading to a tsunami of launches. .
What’s more, by throwing families out into the streets, the risk of further spread of the coronavirus will increase, according to several experts during the virtual conference “A tsunami of evictions about to hit the US” organized by Ethnic Media Services.
“Eviction often leads to instability in the home and homelessness. Rarely do families re-inhabit in the same conditions as before a launch. They end up living all squeezed together or in homeless shelters where they cannot exercise social distance because they don’t have the space, ”said Emily A. Benfer, director of the Justice for Health Clinic at Wake Forest Law School, and a from the creators of the COVID-19 housing policy results card with the Eviction Laboratory at Princeton University.
“As we know, the risk to COVID-19 is related to contact. Therefore, the inability to distance themselves socially may expose evicted families to this pandemic at higher rates of contagion.“
The expert said she is very concerned by states like Missouri, Ohio, Florida, Mississippi and Texas about the inability to pay the rent combined with very limited protections against evictions, and because moratoriums have already been lifted or expired.
However, he mentioned that this is a problem that affects every corner of the country, since the economic depression has not forgiven anyone.
They ask to extend moratorium
In states like Maryland, with a part-time state legislature, Delegate Kumar Barve and other lawmakers have written to Governor Larry Hogan asking him to extend the moratorium that expires in August through January 2021.
They have also emphasized that they want more of the economic stimulus package (Cares Act) to dedicate to temporary income assistance.
“In the county where I live, Montgomery, maybe we have a 1% eviction rate, if we raise it to 10-15%, we are going to have large-scale social chaos,” said Barve.
He acknowledged that many rental homeowners have no interest in evicting people, but they are going to put them in a very tough situation. In addition, when removing someone from their home, they have to invest in remodeling the evicted apartment, and it is not that they are going to rent it immediately to the economic situation.
“Our hope is to work with the administration to design a more permanent solution because today everyone is in a state of suspense because there are many questions. We don’t even know who the next president will be. ”
Barve cited a newspaper report from early July indicating that 32% of Americans had not paid the full amount of their rent.
“If these people are evicted between August and September, the eviction tsunami will be a reality and we would be facing a humanitarian catastrophe from which it will be very difficult for us to recover.”
Helplessness will grow
Margo Kushel, professor in the Internal Medicine Division of San Francisco General Hospital and director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the University of California, San Francisco, estimated that during this health crisis, homelessness could increase between 20 and 40%.
“When someone is evicted, they move into overcrowded houses, and within a period of one or two years, they become homeless,” he said.
At the current time, he commented that if someone is left homeless it will be more complicated than it has ever been for 50% of the homeless on the West Coast.
He cited the Room Key project that during the pandemic has placed 15,000 of California’s 150,000 homeless in hotels.
“The governor has just announced that the Room Key project will dispose of $ 600 million to acquire some of those hotels that have housed the homeless, but this will not attend to the new flows of homeless people that the pandemic will leave.”
Margo considered that one of the causes for the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Latino communities has to do with the fact that many of them live in conditions of extreme overcrowding. “Up to 12 people share a room or a bathroom, and this is not safe for the COVID-19“
They advocate for more support
Nisha Vyas, an attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said that in the face of the upcoming eviction tsunami, nThey need to advocate for meaningful government intervention, if this “fast and furious” crisis is to be avoided.
He showed that In California, an estimated 17 million tenants will be unable to pay their rent.
“The eviction process is designed to be very efficient in California with little regard for tenants. Almost 75% of eviction cases are resolved 45 days after they occur, and 60% in a month. “
He noted that in the vast majority of eviction cases, landlords are represented by attorneys, and most tenants do not have legal assistance. As a result, they tend to lose the case.
Attorney Vyas said that despite the moratorium on evictions, they have heard reports of landlords trying to remove tenants from the home, calling the police, changing locks, or turning in documents as if they were from court.
He considered that there will be a massive eviction crisis among minorities when the temporary moratoriums end and the tenants have to pay the rent.
For that reason, the Western Center is sponsoring in the California legislature, measure AB 1436, the Eviction Prevention Act by COVID-19 and Housing Stability, designed to give tenants a fair opportunity to pay the rent they owe, and give landlords the ability to claim the rents through a civil process rather than through the eviction process. It also contains protections to avoid affecting the credit of the tenants, and to maintain the rental capacity for the future.
