Eviction moratoriums nationwide are set to expire later this month, potentially thrusting tens of thousands of people into a housing crisis.
Congress in March passed a federal mandate prohibiting evictions or foreclosures until July 24 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But as the deadline quickly approaches, experts warn that unless Congress passes more relief, renters might be forced out on the streets.
Across the country, thousands of evictions are either pending or processing, possibly setting up a wave of newly homeless people in the next few months. The pandemic has pushed millions of Americans into unemployment, leaving many unable to keep up with monthly rent and food demands.
In Tucson, Arizona, the courts are processing an average of 52 eviction cases per day, up from the normal 10 to 30 cases, according to the Arizona Daily Star. In Tennessee, more than 9,000 eviction hearings are pending, about 33% more cases than normal for this time of year, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
Homeless and housing services experts in New York are seeing signs that there will be a spike in the population of newly homeless people in the coming months.
No concrete data yet exists that quantifies the number of newly homeless people nationally. But in New York, “we still anecdotally have seen some people become newly homeless due to informal evictions, particularly for people who did not have a formal lease in their name,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless.
Large numbers of these people “were paying week by week for room rentals and lost their source of income due to the pandemic. Many of those people have become newly homeless, because they might not have realized what their protections were.”
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/03/experts-fear-a-wave-of-homelessness-once-eviction-moratoriums-end.html