Originally published in Barron's on July 7, 2020
The rent is due, and millions of people in America can’t afford to pay. Low-wage workers are losing jobs the fastest from Covid-19-related shutdowns. Most struggled to pay the rent even before the coronavirus outbreak. A patchwork of federal, state, and local moratoriums give short-term relief to some people but leave many unprotected and create a financial cliff when moratoriums are lifted and back rent is owed. People of color are the most at risk.
Without immediate federal action, millions of Black and Latino people will be evicted from their homes and face homelessness. State and local moratoriums are expiring rapidly. Twenty-nine governors already have lifted their eviction moratoriums, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition tracking, and federal restrictions, which protect renters in nearly 30% of federally financed properties throughout the country, expire in weeks.
The eviction wave has already begun, with landlords and courts beginning to kick people out of their homes. While some communities have cobbled together resources to provide rental assistance, many are shutting down programs within hours or days after funds are depleted. Demand is overwhelming resources throughout the country at the same time that increasing numbers of evictions occur in states where new coronavirus cases are surging.
The U.S. House of Representatives has responded to this urgent need and the public outcry by passing essential housing and homelessness protections in both the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (Heroes) Act and the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act. Senate Democrats have introduced multiple bills to provide housing stability during the pandemic and have taken to the Senate floor to urge the majority to move these bills forward. To date, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has not taken any meaningful action on these bills.
While the current crisis has heightened the threat of eviction for Black and brown renters, it is not new. People of color are disproportionately low-income, rent-burdened, or homeless as a result of structural racism. The inequities compound the harm done by Covid-19. Black and Native Americans bear the brunt of infections and fatalities, and Latino and Black people bear the brunt of historic job losses. Now their homes—and with them their families’ ability to stay safe and healthy—are at risk.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. was in the grips of a pervasive affordable-housing crisis. Over half a million people experienced homelessness on any given night. Over 10 million low-income renters paid at least half of their limited income on rent, leaving them one financial emergency away from eviction and, in the worst cases, homelessness.
For many of these renters, the coronavirus is this financial emergency. More than half of low-income households have experienced a recent and sudden decline in income or a job loss. In the first week of June, only 73% of renters in older, lower-cost apartments were able to pay rent. Some are using one-time stimulus checks or paying with credit cards. Both measures are unsustainable.
Across the country and across party lines, Americans overwhelmingly want Congress to act to keep people stably housed during and after the pandemic. According to a recent Opportunity Starts at Home/Hart Research public opinion poll, 89% of Americans, of both political parties, favor a federal policy to stop all evictions during the coronavirus outbreak. Nine out of 10 support emergency rental assistance for those at risk of being evicted, as well as expanding funding for homeless assistance programs.
The imminent influx of evictions and all their harmful outcomes are entirely preventable. Congress should immediately implement a uniform national moratorium on evictions for the duration of the public health emergency and provide at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance. Together, these essential protections will stem the tide of evictions.
In addition, Congress must provide additional funding to homeless shelters and service providers to respond to and prevent Covid-19 outbreaks among people experiencing homelessness. People who are homeless and contract coronavirus are estimated to be twice as likely to be hospitalized, two to four times as likely to require critical care, and two to three times as likely to die than others in the general public. This has enormous implications for individuals, their communities, and already overstretched hospital systems.
The stakes couldn’t be higher during this public health crisis. Every day of inaction puts more low-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and others at immediate risk of becoming homeless. Congress must act with urgency to keep people in their homes and get those experiencing homelessness housed. When stopping the spread of the coronavirus depends on an ability to stay at home, housing is health care. Ensuring that everyone has a stable place to live during and after the Covid-19 pandemic is not only a moral imperative, it is a public health necessity.
Diane Yentel is the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a membership organization dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the U.S. have affordable and decent homes.