Evictions

The Pandemic Has Made Homelessness And Eviction Even More Deadly

September 14, 2021 Sarah Glen, Scalawag Magazine. Educate! COVID-19, Evictions, Homelessness, Housing

According to the Associated Press, a one-night tally in 2020 counted 580,000 people experiencing homelessness in the United States. Advocates say that total is almost certainly a severe undercount, with a more accurate total being upwards of 2 million people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged both the difficulty of helping unhoused folks get vaccinated—most don't have access to transit options—and the reality that they're more likely to be at risk of severe illness because of compounding health issues. But how we actually help our unhoused neighbors get vaccinated varies from city to city, and often relies on NGOs like Southern Solidarity. In Texas, the pandemic brought a swift pivot to healthcare support for Austin's Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), a nonprofit that plans and implements strategies to end homelessness in Travis County.

Report Details Corporate Landlord Gluttony As Millions Face Eviction

September 3, 2021 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! Corporatism, Eviction Moratorium, Evictions, Housing

Despite their loud public complaints to lawmakers about the supposed "economic hardships" caused by the CDC's now-terminated eviction moratorium, large real estate companies have privately touted their solid performance during the coronavirus pandemic—and they've rewarded their CEOs with major pay increases. A new report (pdf) provided exclusively to Common Dreams by the government watchdog group Accountable.US shows that large corporate landlords have reported "strong or stable" earnings to investors in recent months as millions of people across the U.S. worried about losing their homes. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against the eviction moratorium on Thursday, millions of people are now at imminent risk of eviction.

Supreme Court Allows Evictions To Resume During Pandemic

August 27, 2021 Mark Sherman, Associated Press. Educate! COVID-19, Evictions, Housing, US Supreme Court

Washington — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.

Billions In Rent Assistance Money Withheld From Millions Facing Eviction

August 19, 2021 Chase Lawrence, WSWS. Educate! Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Pandemic

Out of the $46.5 billion in funding provided for rental assistance under two bailouts enacted in December 2020 and March 2021, the vast majority has not been distributed, with only an estimated $3 billion of the funds being distributed as of August 3 according to CNBC, while millions are at risk of eviction or foreclosure. According to the Eviction Lab, in the six states and 31 cities tracked by it, 480, 456 evictions have taken place during the pandemic. In just those areas alone, 6,108 evictions were filed in the last week. This is in spite of the announcement on August 3 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the extension of the eviction moratorium to October 3 for counties “experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels.”

The Eviction Crisis Is A Race And Gender Wage Gap Issue

August 12, 2021 Rebekah Entralgo, Counter Punch. Educate! Congress, Evictions, Housing, wealth inequality

The federal eviction moratorium coincided with Black Women’s Equal Pay Day 2021, which marks the number of days into the year that the average Black woman has to work to catch up to the average white man’s annual earnings in 2020. Based on recent Census data, Black women make just 63 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. If Black women’s earnings continue to grow as slowly as they have since the mid-1980s, it will take them more than 100 years — until 2133 — to reach pay equity with white men. “Lower pay deprives Black women of resources they need to provide for themselves and their families and over a lifetime can really add up — the loss of earnings in D.C. alone adds up to almost $1 million dollars over 20 years,” said Chandra Childers, lead author of a new report on the wage gap from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

US Eviction Catastrophe And Cynical Democrat Photo Ops

August 9, 2021 Max Blumenthal, Moderate Rebels. Resistance Report Democratic Party, Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing

Max Blumenthal discusses his reporting at the US Capitol on the protests demanding an eviction moratorium, the huge impending economic crisis, the opportunism of the Squad, and how Democratic Party warmongers like Adam Schiff cynically exploited it to do a photo op.

It’s Not Enough To Restore Eviction Protections

August 6, 2021 Morgan Artyukhina, Sputnik News. Create! Biden administration, Evictions, Housing, Law

With a new wave of COVID-19 cases rapidly increasing in the US, this victory, while for the moment averting disaster for millions of poor Americans, is ephemeral at best. If we are to truly protect Americans from a tsunami of evictions caused by pandemic-related lockdowns, US President Joe Biden must also cancel the rents. The White House initially waffled on the issue of extending the moratorium, having been told by Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a late June ruling that he would oppose any further extension of the ban if done by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing a crucial fifth vote to strike down the order. However, with Congress heading into a seven-week summer recess having never attempted to pass such a law, activists and local residents joined Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) occupation-style protest outside the Capitol building to demand the ban be extended past July 31.

Relief For Millions As US Apex Court Keeps Eviction Bans In Place

June 30, 2021 People's Dispatch. Educate! CDC, COVID-19, Evictions, Housing

In a step that brings relief for millions of low-income families across the United States, the Supreme Court decided against a stay on a federally-imposed eviction moratorium. On Tuesday, June 29, the Supreme Court decided by a split vote (5-4) to deny a request by a group of landlords seeking to impose a federal district court’s ruling to block a residential eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The justices decided to not allow the stay as the federal judge’s ruling is being appealed by the federal government. In May this year, a group of corporate landlords and realtors’ association secured a judgement to block the Joe Biden administration’s decision to extend the CDC eviction moratorium until July 31.

Oregon Landlords’ Interests Upheld Vs. Tenants As Evictions Loom

June 28, 2021 Liberation News. Educate! Evictions, Housing, Legal System, Oregon

The State of Oregon’s eviction moratorium officially ends on June 30. Millions of working class tenants across the state are bracing for an onslaught of evictions after more than a year of pandemic-era difficulties. Two contrasting interests intersect now that the moratorium is ending: more than 89,000 Oregon renters who owe back rent, and thousands of landlords who lost income in the last year while renters struggled to make ends meet after unprecedented job losses. An estimated $375 million in unpaid rent has accrued since April 2020. Last week, the Oregon state legislature approved a 60-day hold on evictions in cases where the tenant can prove that their application for state rental assistance is pending.

Biden Extends Eviction Moratorium For One Last Month As Crisis Looms

June 26, 2021 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Class Struggle, Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday that it would be extending a moratorium on evictions until July 31. This will be the last time the CDC extends the moratorium, the Biden administration said. The moratorium was originally scheduled to end at the end of this month on June 30. Over 6 million Americans are behind on rent payments, according to recent Census Bureau data, meaning that many are likely to face the possibility of eviction when the moratorium is lifted. The Biden administration is hoping that the extension will help to stymie a potential crisis, officials said, but emphasized that the postponement will last only “one final month.”

San Francisco Tenant Lawyers Anticipate Flood Of Evictions

June 24, 2021 Noah Arroyo, San Francisco Public Press. Educate! Class Struggle, Evictions, Housing, San Francisco

A wave of evictions could wash across the city next month, tenant attorneys say, even as lawmakers scramble to prevent widespread displacement. “I’m afraid that we’re talking about thousands of people,” said Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation and policy at the Eviction Defense Collaborative. The statewide moratorium on evictions for unpaid rents that were due during the pandemic ends June 30 — and recent legislation by San Francisco lawmakers will not change that. State officials are working to extend the moratorium but have yet to reach an agreement. Prochovnick is preparing for a cascade that could overwhelm the city’s free legal defense system if state talks fall through and throngs of residents get pushed from their homes.

Millions In US ‘Race Against The Clock’ To Pay The Rent And Stave Off Eviction

June 21, 2021 Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian. Educate! Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Renter Rights

Millions of Americans are in a “race against the clock” to receive rental assistance before the end of the month, when a federal eviction moratorium designed to help people cope during the coronavirus pandemic expires. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium ends on 30 June, and some states will still have local renter protections in place. But in the vast majority of states, rental assistance – an essential lifeline for millions – could arrive too late, according to housing advocates. “At this point it’s a race against the clock to try to get the money to the tenants who need it to keep them stably housed when the eviction moratorium expires,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). In mid-May, 7.49 million US adults said they were not current on rent or mortgage payments and had slight or no confidence they could make next month’s payment, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Moth-Eaten Eviction Moratorium Leaves Hundreds Of Thousands Without A Roof

April 8, 2021 Eleanor Goldfield, Mintpress News. Educate! Eviction Moratorium, Evictions, Landlords, Recession

Washington, DC - “Raise your hand if you can’t pay rent,” she yelled sharply and resolutely into a microphone. A Spanish translation echoed her words as hands shot up across the crowd. “Now make that into a fist. Because we gotta fight! It’s only when we fight that we can win!” Cheers and hollers muffled by face masks reverberated off the brick facades. Cars honked as they drove by, throwing solidarity fists at the “Cancel Rent” posters lined up along the sidewalk. A woman with a “Food not Rent” banner waved back with encouragement. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “some 22 million adults reported that their household didn’t have enough to eat,” with Black and Latino households more than twice as likely as white residents to go hungry.

Philadelphia May Have Just Revolutionized Evictions

April 7, 2021 Editorial Board, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Create! Evictions, Housing, Landlords, Philadelphia

Philadelphia is on the verge of upending evictions as we know them. Last Wednesday, the Municipal Court of Philadelphia, which houses landlord-tenant court, released a new order following the extension of the CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium through June. For the next 45 days, landlords are required to apply to PHLRentAssist, the city’s rental assistance program, and enroll in the Eviction Diversion Program before filing an eviction for nonpayment. The order is a game changer. Before the pandemic, landlords filed 20,000 evictions a year in Philadelphia’s landlord-tenant court. That’s despite the devastatingly long list of harms associated with eviction, harms that start with the court filing, a record of which is publicly accessible forever — regardless of the outcome.

The Southern Tenant Union Playbook

March 13, 2021 Sam Russek, Scalawag Magazine. Organize! Evictions, Housing, Recession, Tenants

Despite an eviction moratorium that was intended to keep people housed during the pandemic, landlords filed more than 95,000 evictions in just eight major cities across the South last year. With the passing of the most recent stimulus bill, Senate Democrats approved more than $45 billion in rental and mortgage assistance, but it won't be enough to stave off what housing advocates call the "tsunami of evictions" still to come. But the fight to keep people housed didn't begin when the country shut down, and it won't end when people can safely dine in restaurants. The solution to the current crisis requires novel tactics just as much as it builds on old ones, tenants' unions and advocacy groups say—particularly in the South.

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