State and local governments are under increasing time pressure to prepare for a flood of eviction lawsuits expected once the federal government’s pandemic eviction moratorium expires on July 31.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday that it would again extend its moratorium for an additional month, moving it from June 30 to July 31.
So far, only five states — Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, California — and the District of Columbia have put in place renter protections that extend beyond July 31. On Friday, California became the most recent state to push safeguards beyond those of the federal government, when Gov. Gavin Newsom extended the state's eviction moratorium through Sept. 30. However, critics argue the measure is too weak in that it requires tenants to pay partial back rent to avoid eviction.
During a panel discussion facilitated by PewCharitable Trusts and co-hosted by Princeton University's Eviction Lab on Thursday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said despite his state’s executive order intended to aid at-risk residents with broader protections, as well as a new law giving pandemic-impacted tenants an additional 15 days to apply for public funds to avoid eviction, increased homelessness is inevitable without more federal assistance.
“If you drive around our town you're going to see tents, and it's — you know — it's tragic and it's wrong,” Ellison said. “But it's there, and the city's response has been to put porta potties, which I totally understand that's an emergency response ... We've got to do all we can to stop the coming wave of evictions."
Ellison suggested that public funds should also go to provide lawyers for tenants served with eviction notices. “Without lawyers they’re just prey,” Ellison said.
The coronavirus, which hit poor communities the hardest, also worsened housing inequality in the U.S. Last week, a report on the state of the nation's housing from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that those who lost income during coronavirus-related shutdowns are now more likely to be behind on their housing payments. Millions are teetering close to eviction or foreclosure, the report found.
A 'deeply flawed' strategy for helping renters
Treasury Department guidance issued Thursday underscored the urgency of the housing crisis by stressing that states should tap their share of $46.5 billion in federal emergency rental assistance to offer vulnerable Americans a first line of defense. Courts can use the funds to connect families and landlords with mediation and emergency rental assistance, the department said, and to come up with alternatives to eviction.
However, Rutgers University-Newark professor Peter Hepburn, who collaborates with Eviction Lab at Princeton University, said federal funds aren't going where the money is needed most.
“Congress chose to allocate this money on the basis of state population overall, without taking into account the fact that some states have proportionally more renters than others, or taking into account that, for instance, it costs more to rent an apartment in some states than others," Hepburn told Yahoo Finance Live about the initial release of funds under the Cares Act and the subsequent release under the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
“So there are going to be some larger [population] states hit hard by the pandemic receiving much less assistance on a per renter household basis...inevitably that means fewer resources are available and harder decisions need to be made about who can access that money and who gets left out in the cold,” he said.
The allocation scheme also ignored wide variations in rental rates in different parts of the country, Hepburn said, meaning funds are tied up where they're not needed. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 6.4 million American households were behind on rent as of March 31.
“We know that renters are further behind on rent than ever before,” Hepburn said.
Although it's difficult to estimate the actual number of U.S. households likely to face eviction, he said data points to a ballpark figure of about 1 in 10. "You're looking at about two times as many as normal," he said.
While the coronavirus has exacerbated housing inequality in the U.S., Wake Forest professor Emily Benfer says that a housing crisis was well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pandemic only accelerated and exploited the crisis,” Benfer said during the panel discussion.
She added that minority groups had been most heavily impacted by pandemic job and wage losses that increase risk for eviction, and that more women than men continue to face eviction.
Another factor that could significantly impact tenants and landlords across the country is if the Supreme Court chooses to weigh in on the legality of the protections. On June 3, a group of property owners asked the high court to block the CDC from extending the moratorium on evictions.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.
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