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BOSTON (AP) – Tenants struggling with months of rent arrears face the end of the federal moratorium on evictions on Saturday, a move that could lead to millions being forced out of their homes just as the Highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
The Biden administration announced on Thursday this would allow the national ban to expire, saying she wanted to extend it due to the increase in infections, but her hands were tied after the U.S. Supreme Court reported in June that she would not be not extended beyond the end of July without congressional action.
House lawmakers on Friday tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill to extend the moratorium, even by a few months. Some Democratic lawmakers had wanted it extended until the end of the year.
“August is going to be a tough month as a lot of people will be displaced from their homes,” said Jeffrey Hearne, director of litigation Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. “This will be numbers we’ve never seen before. there are a lot of people who are protected by the … moratorium.
The moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, is credited with keeping 2 million people in their homes over the past year as the pandemic struck the economy, according to the Princeton University Expulsion Laboratory. Moratoriums on evictions will remain in place in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, California and Washington, DC, until they expire later this year.
Elsewhere, the end of the federal moratorium means evictions could begin on Monday, resulting in years of multi-week evictions and ushering in the worst housing crisis since the Great Recession.
Roxanne Schaefer, who already suffers from a myriad of health issues including breathing problems and a bone disorder, is among the millions who fear homelessness.
In a dilapidated and sparsely furnished Rhode Island apartment she shares with her girlfriend, brother, dog and kitten, the 38-year-old is $ 3,000 behind on her monthly rent of $ 995 after her little one friend lost her dishwasher job during the pandemic. Boxes full of their belongings sat behind a sofa in the apartment, which Schaeffer said is infested with mice and cockroaches, and even has squirrels in his bedroom.
The landlord, who first tried to evict it in January, refused to receive federal rent assistance. The only thing preventing him from changing the locks and evicting him, then, is the CDC’s moratorium. Her monthly $ 800 disability check won’t pay for a new apartment. She only has $ 1,000 in savings.
“I have anxiety. I am stressed. I can’t sleep, ”said Schaefer, of West Warwick, Rhode Island, fearing he would be kicked out on the streets. “If he does, you know, I lose everything and I will have nothing.” I will be homeless.
More than 15 million people live in households that owe their owners up to $ 20 billion, according to the Aspen Institute. As of July 5, about 3.6 million people in the United States said they were at risk of deportation over the next two months, according to the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Parts of the South and other areas where tenant protection is weaker will likely experience the greatest spikes, and communities of color, where vaccination rates are sometimes lower, will be hardest hit. But advocates say this crisis is likely to have a wider impact than the pre-pandemic evictions, reaching suburban and rural areas and working families. who have lost their jobs and have never been deported before.
“I know personally that many of the deportees are people who worked before, who have never had any problems,” said Kristen Randall, a constable from Pima County, Ariz. Who will be responsible for carrying out the evictions at. from Monday.
“These are people who have already tried to find new accommodation, a new apartment or to move in with families,” she said. “I know many of them plan to stay in their cars or consider trying to make reservations at local shelters. But because of the pandemic, our shelter space has been more limited. “
“We’re going to see a higher proportion of people taking to the streets than we normally see. It is sad. “
The crisis will only worsen in September when the first foreclosure proceedings are expected to begin. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, about 1.75 million homeowners – about 3.5% of all homes – are in some sort of forbearance plan with their banks. By comparison, around 10 million homeowners lost their homes following the bursting of the housing bubble in 2008.
The Biden administration had hoped that historic amounts of rent assistance allocated by Congress in December and March would prevent an eviction crisis.
But so far, only about $ 3 billion from the first installment of $ 25 billion had been distributed until June by states and communities. Another $ 21.5 billion will go to the States. The speed of disbursements accelerated in June, but some states like New York distributed almost nothing. Several others only approved a few million dollars.
“We are on the brink of catastrophic levels of housing displacement across the country, which will only increase the immediate threat to public health,” said Emily Benfer, professor of law at Wake Forest University and chair of the American Bar Association Eviction Task Force. , Housing stability and equity.
Some places will see an increase in the number of deportees in the coming days, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in court cases that will result in deportations over several months.
“It’s almost unfathomable. We are on the brink of a nationwide eviction crisis that is fully preventable with more time to distribute rent assistance, ”Benfer said.
“The moratorium on evictions is the only thing between millions of tenants and eviction while applications for rent assistance are pending. When this vital public health tool comes to an end on Saturday, as the delta variant increases, the situation will turn dire. “
Many beleaguered tenants will be forced out of a burning housing market where prices are rising and vacancy rates have fallen.
They will be stuck with eviction records and unpaid rents that will make it nearly impossible to find new apartments, leaving many people in hiding with families, turning to already strained homeless shelters, or finding unsafe housing in the city. low-income neighborhoods that lack good schools, good jobs and access to transportation. Many will also be riddled with debt.
Evictions will also prove costly for the communities in which they reside. Studies have shown that evicted families face a long list of health issues, ranging from higher infant mortality rates to high blood pressure to suicide. And taxpayers often foot the bill, providing social services, health care and services to the homeless. A study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the University of Arizona’s Innovation for Justice program found that the costs of evictions linked to the pandemic could reach $ 129 billion.
In Rhode Island, Schaefer struggled to understand why his landlord wouldn’t take federal rent assistance. The owners, many of whom have successfully challenged the moratorium in court, argue the economy is improving and coronavirus cases are on the decline in most places. Those who do not take rental assistance refuse for a variety of reasons, including the desire to get the tenant out.
“It’s not that I want to live here for free,” Schaefer said. “I know that wherever you go and live you have to pay. But I’m just asking to be reasonable.
“Why can’t you take the rent relief? You know, they pay, ”she added. “In the papers it says they’re going to pay, like, two months in advance. At least by then, two months, I can save quite a bit of money and put a down payment somewhere else to move, and you’ll have the money we owe you and you’ll move.
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Associated Press reporter Rodrique Ngowi in West Warwick, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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