The Economics and Political Science Room
INSIGHT-Time’s up: After a reprieve, a wave of evictions expected across U.S.
Renters who can't pay this months rent much less the back rent are about to be evicted, en masse.
It has been a nightmare year for many of America's renters. The local, state and federal eviction bans that gave them temporary protection in the spring began to lapse in early summer - ensnaring renters like Bean in the gap. September's reprieve by the CDC, which protected many, but not all, renters will expire in January.
At that point, an estimated $32 billion in back rent will come due, with up to 8 million tenants facing eviction filings, according to a tracking tool developed by the global advisory firm Stout Risius and Ross, which works with the nonprofit National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel. The nonprofit group advocates for tenants in eviction court to secure lawyers.
In a typical year, 3.6 million people face eviction cases, according to the Princeton University Eviction Lab, a national housing research center.
Landlords, most of whom are mom-and-pop operators with mortgages to pay, say they, too, are under unprecedented financial strain, as many move into the eighth month of nonpayment. Many owners are "not generating sufficient revenue," said Bob Pinnegar, CEO of the National Apartment Association. "This is not a high-profit-margin business."
"Only 9 cents of every dollar return to the owner or investor as profit," he added.
Unless Congress and the Trump administration move past their deadlock over the contours of a new COVID-19 relief package and include financial relief for tenants and landlords, January will bring a surge in displacement and homelessness "unlike anything we have ever seen," said John Pollock, a Public Justice Center attorney and coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.
The Democrat-controlled House passed a relief package that included $50 billion in emergency renter and homeowner assistance funds and a new ban on evictions and foreclosures for 12 months; the Republican-controlled Senate's proposal contains no similar provisions.
More than 60,000 evictions have been filed since the pandemic started in the 17 cities tracked by the Princeton Lab. Health experts say evictions may contribute to a second-wave COVID-19 crisis, as the newly homeless are forced into shelters or tight quarters with friends and relatives, potentially exposing them to infection. The danger is particularly acute in the winter, when colder weather pushes people indoors.
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