United States: between 30 and 40 million tenants …

In the United States, between 30 and 40 million tenants risk eviction from February 1 If the president-elect, Joe Biden, does not issue a decree in his first days in office to end this situation, an NGO that works for the right to housing has warned. It’s a problem that mainly affects the minorities who inhabit the country and this has been aggravated in recent months by the crisis that the arrival of the pandemic has installed.

This Saturday, on his Twitter account, Biden this week vowed to expand “national restrictions on evictions and closures.” As he estimated, “about 14 million Americans are behind on their rent and could soon face the risk of eviction.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had established a moratorium until the end of 2020 that suspended evictions In order to help mitigate contagions and fight against the economic impact of sectors affected by job loss, fall in income or reduction in working hours.

This moratorium was extended by the Congress to follow in force in january, as part of a broader economic recovery plan. But from this Wednesday January 20, with the official change of government, it will be Joe Biden’s turn deal with the problem and provide a solution to tenants who fear being left on the streets.

In this sense, Paul Kealey, director of operations for the National Low Income Housing Coalition (Nlihc) – an NGO that works to end the lack of accessible housing in the United States – said he communicated “with the new government to do so. so that, as one of its first actions, it issues a decree extending the moratorium on evictions until the end of the pandemic.

Along with 1,600 other organizations and leaders, the NGO sent a letter to the new government to urgently address this situation. “In December 2020 nearly one in five tenants was behind on their rent; experts estimate these households already owe between $ 34 billion and $ 70 billion and between 30 and 40 million tenants risk losing their homes“, Quantified the director of Nlihc.

Most affected

According to Kealey, it is “people of color” who are “the most disproportionately affected”. The Household Pulse Survey conducted in late November and early December found that “over 29% of black renters and 26% of Latino renters were behind on their rent, compared to 14% of whites“.

“Only 29% of black and Latino tenants were confident they could pay next month’s rent on time, compared to more than half (54%) of white tenants,” the NGO said.

While an executive order from President Biden would bring some comfort to those affected, Kealey explained that in the long run, they must achieve end “the severe shortage of affordable housing for the lowest incomes”. For him, He urged the federal government to invest in building new homes and repairing existing homes that are not habitable.

“Even before the pandemic, there was a shortage of over seven million affordable rental housing available to people with the lowest incomes,” said the director of the NGO.

“Only one in four people with income eligible for federal housing assistance receives it. The others must fend for themselves in the private rental market which will never build or manage affordable housing for low-income individuals and families, ”he concluded.