The skyrocketing unemployment rate is about to be followed by a giant wave of evictions as renters are unable to pay and temporary holds on evictions in some states expire. A Census Bureau Survey finds one in four households experiencing housing insecurity, evictions are starting up in Oklahoma City and in Texas, and congressional Republicans are not interested in doing anything to prevent a huge number of people from being left homeless.
The House’s $3 trillion HEROES Act includes $100 billion for housing assistance, but that’s one of the many parts of the bill that Senate Republicans would strip out—when and if they finally get around to the next round of coronavirus relief. That leaves millions of families hanging on by their fingernails, lying awake nights wondering how long it will be before they’re thrown out on the street. “I think we will enter into a severe renter crisis and very quickly,” Columbia Law School housing expert Emily Benfer told The New York Times. If the government doesn’t act—and again, Republicans aren’t interested in doing so—“we will have an avalanche of evictions across the country.”
“It’s a ticking clock,” Ohio’s Sandy Naffah told The New York Times. “I can’t continue to go on this way, otherwise I will be out on the street.” She lost her two part-time jobs because of coronavirus shutdowns and hasn't yet received unemployment benefits.
Some people haven’t received unemployment assistance from slow-moving state systems, and others are losing benefits as their states reopen and they come under pressure to return to jobs that may not yet be safe. Many families are spending everything they have—and more—to pay the rent.
”People may be paying their rents, but at what cost?” Tara Raghuveer, the director of KC Tenants, a Kansas City advocacy group, told The Times. “I know several people who are taking out title loans. They are paying their rent on their credit card.” Families are also in many cases putting housing over food security, leading to rising hunger—including among kids—with food assistance also not reaching families as quickly as it is theoretically supposed to.
Start with a grossly unequal economy in which 40% of adults would struggle to cover an unexpected $400 expense. Add a pandemic that throws tens of millions out of work, with the job losses concentrated among households taking in less than $40,000 a year. And then let Republicans get in the way of a humane, moral government response. This is what you get: rampant housing insecurity and food insecurity. Widespread suffering. And the Senate still on recess, refusing to help regular people anyway.