Eviction ban ends, putting millions at risk of losing their homes

The House Rules Committee is meeting on Friday to consider a bill to extend the federal moratorium on evictions until December. But there is not broad bipartisan support and he faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

The CDC’s moratorium on evictions and other protections have prevented an estimated 2.2 million eviction requests since March 2020, according to Peter Hepburn, a researcher at the Eviction Lab and an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University in Newark.

“These moratoriums and protections, they weren’t perfect, but they’ve undeniably had a huge effect in preventing deportation requests,” Hepburn said.

Nowhere to go

Leonard, 68, rented his one-bedroom apartment in Tzadik Park in late March 2020, just as the pandemic was spreading across the country. It was to be a new start for him after his living situation with his family members deteriorated. He planned to stay there for a year while he found a more permanent income-based retirement home.

Former heavy equipment operator lives on $ 1,159 in monthly Social Security income. With a monthly rent of $ 819, including utilities, housing costs represented 75% of his income. But he could pay it, even if he struggled to furnish his empty apartment with basic items. After July, when her doctor told her to stay in the house to protect herself from the virus, her expenses increased. He had to pay more for necessities and have them delivered and he was behind on the rent.

When her rent was not paid in March 2021, along with $ 1,433 in previous rents after several months of partial payments and hundreds more of late payments for non-payment in full, her landlord filed a claim for payment. ‘expulsion.

Leonard is now $ 5,688 behind on rent, according to Christina Alletto, director of human resources at Tzadik Properties, which owns and manages Tzadik Park and apartment buildings in more than six states.

He found some security in invoking CDC protection and applied for rent assistance. But its owner would not accept the funds, he said.

In an email to CNN Business, Alletto said the company worked with him, providing the paperwork needed to apply for rent relief, but the help he was asking for only covered one month’s rent, not the full balance.

“Mr. Leonard said in his letter to [apply for the] help he bought new furniture with his stimulus check instead of paying rent, so they refused him further help, ”Alletto said, referring to the rental aid distributor.

Leonard says he had been sleeping on the floor for several months after moving into the apartment because he couldn’t buy a mattress. He said he spent $ 69 on an air mattress.

Alletto said Tzadik continued to accept rent relief funds and was ready to work with troubled tenants. “Eviction is always a last resort after all other avenues have been explored with each resident,” she said in the email.

But Leonard, who until now was protected by the CDC’s deportation ban, is running out of avenues to explore. His latest effort to stay in his house is a letter to the judge in the eviction case explaining that he now has a pending request for 12 months of rent relief and expects to receive it, but doesn’t think so. that she will arrive before the deportation. the ban expires.

With medical problems and nowhere to go except “on the street,” he asked for more time in his handwritten letter. “All the rent will be paid but I don’t know if it will be paid by July 31st … Please help me so that I don’t lose everything I have.”

Millions of people threatened with eviction

Millions of tenants like Leonard face eviction as time is running out for precarious protection. More than 3 million people said they risked eviction “in the next two months”, according to a census survey in early July and nearly 5 million tenants said they would not be able to pay the August rent, according to the same survey. .

Unable to extend protection, the Biden administration focused on accelerating the distribution of rent relief, streamlining demands, and encouraging communities to create exit ramps so that millions of people do not fall off an eviction cliff.

“We have known for almost a year that the moratorium on evictions will eventually end,” Dworkin said. “In December, Congress allocated $ 25 billion to help tenants. We had seven months to spend that money. There is no excuse that it is not in the hands of those who have it. Not needed anymore.”

“We are seeing the vanguard of the eviction crisis,” Dworkin said. “It will be concentrated in the states with the heaviest impact and the least tenant protections.”

The states where residents are at the greatest risk of eviction are South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and New Jersey, according to an Eviction Risk Insights report from UrbanFootprint, an urban planning data company. . His research also shows that black tenants are at more than double the risk of eviction compared to white tenants, with around 25% of the population at risk black and 11% white.

“Given the low vaccination rates in areas at high risk of eviction and the rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, the public health case for a moratorium on evictions is just as strong today. ‘hui than they were when the CDC first instituted the policy, “Hepburn says.

Find new protections

Valeria Allieti, a single mother who lives in Las Vegas, saw her income increase when the pandemic prevented her from cleaning homes.

She is behind on the $ 1,270 per month rent she pays for the four bedroom house she shares with her three sons. But she found protection under the moratorium on evictions.

Allieti said she was reluctant to ask for rent relief – accustomed as she was to being a single mom who has to solve the problem on her own.

“I don’t feel powerful because of the moratorium,” she said through a translator. “I feel like a bad person. I’ve always been able to do it on my own.”

But she now owes about $ 6,000 in past due rent and considers asking for help to be her best protection against eviction after the CDC’s moratorium expires.

“Despite the moratorium on evictions and tenant protections we’ve won, we face an uphill battle,” said Lalo Montoya, political director and housing justice coordinator at Make the Road Nevada.

For Allieti, that means waiting as patiently as possible for the rent relief to arrive so that she can pay what she owes and stay home.

“At the moment, I feel like I can’t concentrate on my day-to-day,” Allieti said. “I feel like I’m lost in the clouds. I’m worried about the prospect of losing our home, the uncertainty of what might happen.”