Evictions and COVID-19

Introduction

A Maricopa County official posts an eviction order for nonpayment of rent in Phoenix in October. A federal moratorium on such actions during the pandemic has not blocked all evictions from taking place. (Getty Images/John Moore)

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Overview

When Ollie Aldama lost his job as a bar manager in Seattle at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago, it soon meant he could no longer afford his monthly $1,800 rent. By November, he owed his landlord, Rian de Laat, more than $20,000.1

This created serious difficulties for de Laat, a landlord with just one rental property who faced her own financial challenges. State and federal moratoriums prevented her from evicting Aldama, but she managed to find a loophole: She could legally remove him by moving into the apartment herself.

A man helps clear out an apartment during an eviction in Galloway, Ohio, on March 3. As of the end of 2020, some 10 million Americans were behind on their rent. (Getty Images/Stephen Zenner)

Yet when the time came to deliver the final eviction notice to Aldama and his partner, de Laat found that she could not take that step. “He teared up, and I teared up,” de Laat recalled. “I couldn't do it. I just couldn't, in the middle of a pandemic, evict them.” Aldama, for his part, is grateful for the reprieve — but knows it may be only temporary. “There's never been a point in my adult life where I ever thought I would be a hair's width away from living on the street,” he said.2

The COVID-19 pandemic created a potential eviction crisis on a scale that may be unprecedented in U.S. history. Without government intervention, an estimated 30 million to 40 million Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color, are at risk of losing a place to live. States, cities and Congress have stepped in to temporarily halt evictions, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instituted an eviction moratorium for qualified renters that will extend through June 30 and a new pandemic relief measure is providing $21.6 billion in federal aid to tenants and landlords. But the patchwork solutions are little more than a Band-Aid for the growing crisis that threatens to have ripple effects across the entire economy, according to housing experts.3

An estimated one-third of the U.S. population lives in one of 43.8 million rental properties.4 And half of them spend upward of 30 percent of their income on rent, leaving little to cover other bills or emergency expenses or to withstand a sudden job loss.5 As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country last year, the economy shed more than 22 million jobs, only around half of which have since been recovered.6

The result? As of late December, 10 million Americans were behind on their rent, three times the usual rate. The Moody's Analytics research firm estimated in January that renters owed a collective $57 billion in rent arrears.7 Failure to pay rent — especially for months in a row — left millions at risk of eviction.8

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Congress stepped in, first in March 2020 by instituting a 120-day nationwide eviction moratorium for certain properties as part of the larger Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (Cares) Act. The protections applied to federally financed properties and federally assisted housing, or around one in four rental units.9 In September, the CDC enacted a more wide-reaching moratorium, based on a 1944 law that gives the federal agency the power to take certain actions to prevent the spread of disease during a pandemic. According to the CDC, eviction forces tenants into homelessness or crowded living conditions, both of which perpetuate the spread of a virus.10

The CDC moratorium prevented tenants from being evicted solely for nonpayment of rent. To qualify, an individual had to make less than $99,000 per year (or $198,000 for couples filing a joint tax return) and had to sign an affidavit for their landlord affirming that they had lost income during the pandemic, had made efforts to find financial assistance to cover rent and were at risk of becoming homeless if evicted. Landlords caught in violation of the order could be fined up to $100,000 and face a year in jail. The initial CDC order expired at the end of 2020 but was extended through the end of June.

The federal moratorium, along with those implemented in some cities and states, did not stop all evictions. As of March 20, in five states and 27 cities tracked by The Eviction Lab, a team of Princeton University researchers building a nationwide eviction dataset, landlords had filed 278,376 eviction cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.11

These evictions were happening for myriad reasons. Courts in some jurisdictions, including those in Missouri and North Carolina, refused to accept the CDC order as a constitutional use of the agency's authority. In other areas, landlords aggressively challenged the declarations tenants had signed. “They have to explain where every penny of their monthly check is going or even if they are getting a check. It creates a higher burden for tenants than was intended by the original order,” said Hannah Adams, an attorney at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.12

Another major problem was a general misunderstanding of the order, what it did and who was affected. “Right now, we are seeing variations in the way courts are applying the CDC order, and we are also seeing a lack of knowledge among tenants and property owners,” said Emily Benfer, chair of the COVID-19 task force committee on evictions at the American Bar Association.13 Reports also surfaced about landlords using high-pressure tactics such as cutting off utilities, changing locks or making threats to force renters to leave.14

Adding further confusion, in February and March, two federal judges ruled the CDC moratorium to be unconstitutional. The Justice Department said it was appealing the first decision and also said the ruling applied only to the individual plaintiffs in the cases.15

An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, conducted in July 2020 found that around two-thirds of eviction cases filed during the pandemic targeted tenants in Black and Hispanic communities.16 This tracked with prepandemic eviction statistics. Based on court filings in 39 states between 2012 and 2016, The Eviction Lab found that while Black people make up 19.9 percent of all adult renters, they accounted for 32.7 percent of eviction defendants. “Black and Latinx renters in general, and women in particular, are disproportionately threatened with eviction and disproportionately evicted from their homes,” according to The Eviction Lab's study.17

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It is difficult to compare the COVID-19 housing fallout to previous economic crises, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s and the 2007-09 Great Recession, in part because an estimated one-third of counties in the United States do not keep annual statistics on evictions.18 Further, the origin of the Great Recession was a housing market problem, primarily affecting homeowners, while the coronavirus created a job-market problem, meaning the impact hits renters more severely.19

The best estimates indicate that about 273,000 families were evicted in 1932, three years after the stock market crashed.20 More recently, during and immediately after the global financial crisis that followed the housing bubble collapse, around 7 million U.S. homeowners faced foreclosure between 2008 and 2012.21 Staff at the Economic Roundtable, an economic and social research group, estimate that the pandemic-driven economic crisis will cause twice as much homelessness as the Great Recession.22 In New York City in early December, 20,000 single adults were sleeping in shelters on any given night, the highest number ever recorded.23

Housing advocates say there is one critical area where the federal response to the eviction crisis has fallen short: The eviction moratoriums did not erase back rent or late fees for renters. “The moratorium on its own was never the full solution. Never sufficient,” says Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which advocates for affordable housing. “They postpone evictions, but they don't prevent them. Because the rent is still due.”

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In December, as part of an omnibus government funding and COVID relief bill, Congress provided $25 billion in rental relief. This money was given to the states, which were then to offer it to renters who meet specific criteria (as of March, only around 15 states had begun distributing funds).24 One report from Moody's Analytics said the money is enough to help 3.5 million individuals, but still leaves 6.8 million renters with an estimated total $34 billion debt.25 Absent additional funding, “the moratorium is just a temporary solution,” says Ron Flagg, president of the Legal Services Corporation, a publicly funded institution providing legal aid to those who cannot afford it.

Various states and cities created rental relief programs to address the problem, but most of those ran dry by summer 2020. On President Biden's first day in office, Jan. 20, he issued an executive order to extend the eviction mandate until March 31 and called on Congress to pass his proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which included another $21.6 billion for renters and landlords.26 The measure was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president in March.27

To qualify for rental relief, at least one individual in a household must be eligible for unemployment assistance or able to prove they lost income or incurred significant expenses due to COVID-19, be at risk of homelessness and fall below a set income cap. Funds can be used by an individual to cover 12 to 18 months of back rent and utilities.28

In addition to aiding renters, the stimulus measure provides assistance to landlords who need money to pay their own bills. When they are not receiving monthly rental payments, property owners may not have enough to cover mortgage payments, maintenance or property taxes. Around half of the country's rental units are owned by family or small independent landlords, who rely on the rental income.29 De Laat, the Seattle landlord who initially considered removing her tenants, said she is “morally opposed to putting people out if they can't pay, especially under these circumstances,” but also said the current situation is unsustainable. “I … don't see a means for them ever to be able to work on paying stuff back,” she said.30

Organizations representing landlords are pressing for more direct rental assistance. “Having an eviction moratorium without a sufficient amount of rental assistance, it creates an environment that is just rife with problems and potential conflicts,” says Bob Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association. He says many of those issues extend beyond the pandemic's immediate financial effects.

“Pre-COVID, we were experiencing a housing affordability crisis,” Pinnegar says. “Our concern is that if we lose rental properties to foreclosure because rents aren't getting paid, we could be even further behind in housing supply versus needs when we come out of this.”

As policymakers, housing advocates, tenants and landlords consider solutions to the looming eviction crisis and longer-term housing affordability challenges, here are some of the questions they are considering:

Are eviction moratoriums the right answer to the crisis?

Eviction moratoriums are one of the primary strategies used by governments at all levels to keep renters housed during the pandemic. As Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, asked in November, while Congress was considering whether to extend the federal government's moratorium, “What kind of country are we that will allow this wave of evictions in the middle of the winter, in the middle of a pandemic?” He added, “That's just morally indefensible.”31

Brown's take on the situation has many supporters. Recent research found that renters living in states with an eviction moratorium were less likely to contract and die from COVID-19.32 Housing rights advocates argue that the programs provide a temporary, yet critical stopgap for some renters who would have otherwise been homeless during a pandemic.

“Eviction moratoria help renters in the short term in that they aim to prevent the physical removal of tenants for nonpayment of rent during a pandemic that has impacted the entire economy,” says Jesse McCoy II, a housing attorney in North Carolina.

Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project, says moratoriums have “been effective in preventing the mass tsunami that we were most concerned about,” but says “they haven't come close to stopping all or substantially all evictions, which was what we really need during a pandemic.”

Moratorium supporters see other shortcomings, beyond the inability to protect all renters. Because they do not offset accumulating rent, “what we have done is kick the can of an eviction tsunami without adequately addressing the repercussions of that action,” says McCoy. Once renters are no longer protected from eviction, they will face significant accumulated rental debt, estimated at an average of $5,600 per delinquent renter.33

A crowd gathers in Brooklyn, N.Y., last August to halt what they called an illegal eviction of a woman during a state-imposed moratorium prompted by the pandemic. (Getty Images/LightRocket/Erik McGregor)

“Most of my clients are working again and are able to cover future rents, but will never be able to cover the accumulated deficits given they simply do not generate enough income to do so,” says McCoy.

William A. Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University, agreed that tenants' debts are a serious problem. “I do think this is a very dangerous moment in terms of the welfare of the American people,” he said.34

However, others find the federal moratorium an unnecessary overreach of government authority. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted, “CDC inserting itself into private rental contracts, effectively transferring control of private property from the lawful owner to the renter, is possibly the most socialist action our government has taken in decades … and without an act of Congress!”35

Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, agreed. “Forcing property owners to provide free housing is a subtle form of expropriation of private property without just compensation,” he wrote. Griffith also noted that rent delinquencies have not substantially increased during the pandemic.36 However, many housing experts said this is because renters have relied on extended federal unemployment benefits and stimulus checks to pay rent, to the detriment of other needs.

Some scholars are concerned that the federal moratorium could have lasting negative economic effects that outweigh any short-term benefit. “There are dangerous side effects to depriving landlords of justly owed rents,” wrote Howard Husock, an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, of an eviction ban in New York. “Small property owners need their rental income for lots of reasons other than paying their mortgages and avoiding foreclosure, though that's a crucial necessity, too. They need the income themselves: for groceries, utilities and other basics.”37

Griffith said the impact of eviction moratoriums goes beyond the individual renter or property owner. “As landlords postpone property tax payments, local schools, fire departments, law enforcement, and parks experience a decline in funding,” he wrote. Down the road, he said, landlords may increase rent or require higher security deposits to protect against future moratoriums.38

Pinnegar, at the National Apartment Association, also worries about those long-term effects, saying he is “very concerned about and opposed to moratoriums that go off into the future without an end in sight or adequate rental assistance.” He worries that a moratorium without financial relief could result in a loss of rental properties if landlords were unable to pay their own bills. Instead, his group advocates direct rental assistance. “I understand the moratoriums, and I think they have good intentions, but I need to constantly look at this from the standpoint of how do we support the industry and the renters as well,” Pinnegar says.

Pinnegar's fear is shared by landlord groups and some housing experts who worry that eviction moratoriums could result in a shortage of affordable housing. More than half of property owners have four or fewer units and rely on rent to cover operating costs and their own property mortgage.39 When a foreclosure occurs, the community loses those units at a time when the nation is already struggling to provide adequate housing for low-income renters.40

“All resources and protections that have helped keep people housed have done nothing to help the underlying pervasive shortage of affordable housing,” says National Low Income Housing Coalition CEO Yentel. “Best case, we end this pandemic as we started it, which is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis with a shortage of 7 million homes for the lowest-income people.”

Should the federal government expand its role in addressing affordable housing needs?

In addition to the severe shortage of affordable housing that existed before the pandemic, an estimated 21 million renters in the United States were spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing. Half of these residents were spending upward of 50 percent of their take-home pay on rent.41

Moreover, the affordable housing challenge has only gotten worse over the past few decades. In part, this is because of local zoning restrictions that make it expensive to build in many cities; without developers willing to construct affordable housing, supply cannot keep up with demand.42 “Pre-COVID, for every 10 of the lowest-income renter households, we have fewer than four apartments that were affordable and available to them,” Yentel says.

Some look to the federal government for a solution. “I can't point to a city that says we've got this figured out,” said Mary Cunningham, vice president for metropolitan housing and communities policy at the Urban Institute, a think tank that studies social and economic policies. “It's really the role of the federal government to provide. They're the ones with the ability to match the need.”43

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and Jim Parrott, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute, wrote that the COVID-19 eviction crisis has put Congress in a position to intervene and “make sure that in staving off a near-term rental crisis we are not simply repairing a pothole on a collapsing bridge.”

They argued that one way for the federal government to expand affordable housing is to make permanent a temporary fee paid by banks to insure mortgages that are backed by the federal government. This fee was first enacted to cover a short-term payroll tax cut in 2011. According to their estimate, this would bring in upward of $50 billion over the next 10 years. That money could then go to the National Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund, federal programs established to increase the number of affordable housing units.44

Yentel agrees on the need for government intervention. “When it comes to housing for the lowest-income people, the private market can't meet their needs,” she says. “That's because you cannot build and operate homes affordable to extremely low-income people without government support because the rent those people can afford doesn't cover the costs to build, maintain and operate a property.” She calls this a “classic private market failure,” which is what makes options such as subsidies from the federal government, expansion of Section 8 vouchers that pay for all or part of an individual's rent in a privately owned housing unit, deeply targeted tax credits or additional grants from the National Housing Trust Fund critical for meeting affordable housing demand.

Another possibility, Yentel says, is the development of a cash assistance program to help renters absorb a one-time financial emergency that makes it difficult to pay their rent. “If they don't have $200 or $500 in cash, it leads to an eviction and a spiraling down into homelessness with many associated costs,” she says. Before 2020, many renters facing an eviction owed less than $600.45

Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine O'Regan, co-directors of the New York University Furman Center, along with Amy Ganz, deputy director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, called for a similar emergency rental assistance program, which they estimate would cost $4.5 billion per year. “Only the federal government has the necessary resources to provide adequate funding,” they wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.46

Others think it was federal government intervention that got America into an affordable housing problem, and that more intervention is not likely to improve matters. Charles Coats, director of homebuyer services for the housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity in Bryan and College Station, Texas, said that long-standing federal policies and incentives to encourage more homeownership, coupled with local ordinances that protect homeowner investments, “squeeze the already small pool of affordable rental and ownership housing options to the point of extinction.” When more wealthy individuals look at homes as an investment option, and local governments begin implementing building codes and zoning ordinances that protect those investments, they deplete the already small affordable housing stock and force developers to look elsewhere for places to build. He added, “These same government entities then continue to throw more and more money at the ‘affordable housing crisis’ that they themselves are responsible for creating!”47

In Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has been pushing a “Housing for All” proposal that he said would “guarantee every American — regardless of income — a fundamental right to a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home.”48 In part, Sanders' plan would impose national rent controls. Landlords would be able to raise rents only 3 percent or 1.5 times the rate of inflation, whichever is higher, each year unless they could prove to the government that they made significant improvements to the property that should command more rent.

Supporters of Sanders' proposal say average rental costs around the country have consistently outpaced both inflation and income growth. But others argue that this solution would only exacerbate the problem. Construction of affordable housing, they say, costs the same no matter how much a landlord can charge for rent. Instituting national rent controls could have the unintended effect of reducing the number of developers interested in constructing affordable housing and of landlords wanting to make updates to their properties.

The Heritage Foundation's Griffith said government intrusion, such as rent control, “whether motivated by good intentions, blatant political maneuvering, or a raw appetite for power — has stoked an affordability crisis. Layering on even more intervention would only add fuel to the fire.”49

Should more housing aid be prioritized to support minorities or other marginalized groups?

Without question, the pandemic, and the eviction issues it created, fell disproportionately on minorities. In February, nearly one-third of Black renters and 20 percent of Hispanics were unable to keep up with monthly rent payments, compared with 12 percent of white renters, the Census Bureau found.50

According to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, Black and Hispanic households were already more likely than their white counterparts to spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Black households in particular were the most severely burdened by housing costs, with a high portion spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing.51 Further, Black and Hispanic women have long been more likely than men to be evicted, even before the pandemic.52

Duke University's Darity said the racial disparity is in part because government policies never ensured the well-being of people of color or guaranteed access to housing and other basic needs. “To the extent that we've never made a social commitment,” he said, “we're going to experience this kind of inequality that's associated with significant deprivation for a large part of our population.”53

Dunn, of the National Housing Law Project, says a failure to recognize the disproportionate impact housing challenges have on minorities, especially when layered on top of COVID job losses that hit minority communities harder than others, “is a recipe for extensive residential resegregation.”

However, policymakers and others disagree on how to spend the limited funds that local, state and federal governments have to support housing for vulnerable communities. This lack of consensus is reflected in the different approaches states have taken with their National Housing Trust Fund grants, with focus alternately placed on minorities, homeless populations, extremely low-income families, seniors, veterans, immigrants and those recently released from prison.

For example, Ted Houghton, president of the New York City nonprofit Gateway Housing, and a former executive deputy commissioner of the state's housing agency, wants to see greater focus placed on funding to support homeless individuals. He is pushing for a $44 billion appropriation to the National Housing Trust Fund specifically for homeless populations. According to Houghton, more than 700,000 individuals nationwide experience homelessness each night, a number that will likely grow if the anticipated wave of COVID-19-related evictions hits. He wrote that states and localities could use a federal infusion of money to purchase commercial properties, from hotels to office buildings to malls, that are now vacant because of the pandemic.

Police officers in Bloomington, Ind., tell a member of a homeless community he must remove his tent from a public right-of-way. Some housing experts advocate prioritizing aid to the homeless as the most effective way to support housing for vulnerable communities. (Getty Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Jeremy Hogan)

“Such an effort would quickly finance the creation of enough permanent affordable housing to finally make a significant dent in our nation's shameful homeless numbers,” he wrote.

Houghton said focusing on housing the homeless and low-income families in this way would avoid urban blight and might also provide job opportunities for area residents. In addition, he wrote, many properties that could be used for such a program are in areas with minimal segregation, quality schools and less income inequality. Studies have shown that moving into these areas can “greatly improve the trajectories of homeless children's lives,” Houghton wrote.54

Some governments may choose to focus on renters with the lowest incomes, many of whom are likely to be only one financial crisis away from homelessness. Proposals such as Houghton's would address those needs, which is critical based on data from Ellen, Ganz and O'Regan, who estimated that after paying rent, the average renter in the bottom one-fifth of the population in income in 2016 “had only $400 remaining each month — a 20 percent decline in real terms since 2000.”55

These individuals have also been hardest hit by COVID-19's dual health and financial effects. In August 2020, only 14 percent of upper-income earners reported that someone had lost either a job or their wages because of coronavirus, while 33 percent of low-income individuals said the same, according to the Pew Research Center.56 The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that in counties with high delinquency rates on loans and credit cards, there was an average of 4.3 COVID cases per 1,000 people, while counties with lower delinquency had a rate of 2.8 out of 1,000.57

At Brookings, researchers Yung Chun and Michal Grinstein-Weiss wrote that funding and other solutions to address housing challenges should focus not only on Black and Hispanic families, but also on groups that receive less attention in the housing equality space, such as young adults or noncorporate landlords. One possible solution for avoiding homelessness and eviction for such individuals, they wrote, is a universal housing voucher, available to anyone below a certain income level.

Young adults are among those who could benefit from such support, Chun and Grinstein-Weiss wrote. Their data showed that as COVID-19 wore on, those between the ages of 18 and 39 faced “a significant increase in hardship,” including more eviction and past-due rent. “This is compounding the financial situation of young adults who have had a shorter amount of time to accumulate protective financial assets, making it harder to weather the shock of the pandemic,” they said.58

Regardless of how funding is ultimately targeted, Parrott and Zandi said COVID-19 has laid bare the disparities that exist among demographic groups in the United States. “The pandemic has hit the nation's most vulnerable communities hard,” they wrote. “Not only have they been more likely to get sick, but they have been more likely to lose their income and savings, and now they are more likely to be evicted. Any one of those challenges should insult the conscience of the nation; all three should be unacceptable.”59

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Background

Federal Subsidies

The economic hardship of the Great Depression left many Americans without the means to cover the cost of adequate housing. At the same time, however, evictions were still relatively rare, and when they happened, often drew a crowd of neighbors. Some would take action to thwart the process, sitting on furniture to stop officials from moving it or carrying the evicted family's belongings back inside.60 In August 1931, 60,000 people protested against eviction laws in Chicago, and three were killed when the crowd clashed with police.61 In 1933, as many as 6,000 individuals turned out in Cleveland to protest an eviction; the police deployed tear gas and fire hoses to try to disperse the crowd.62

Responding to growing unrest over housing instability, the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress began establishing programs that gave the federal government a role in ensuring Americans could afford a place to live. The first was the 1934 National Housing Act, which created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The agency set up a mortgage insurance system that made homeownership a reality for a wider section of the population.63 According to one report, the FHA helped 12 million people find a better housing situation.

However, the impact was not universal. In his book The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein wrote that the FHA was a “state-sponsored system of segregation” that was “primarily designed to provide housing to white, middle-class, lower-middle-class families.” Through a policy that came to be known as redlining, the FHA would not insure mortgages for homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods, and prohibited the sale certain homes subsidized by the FHA to a Black family.64

Three years later, the Housing Act of 1937 declared it the “policy of the United States to promote the general welfare of the nation.”65 At the time, much of the housing available to the lowest-income Americans was substandard and rundown. Those who could not afford even the worst of the available housing lived in cellars, attics and barns.66 The law gave subsidies to local governments to eliminate such dwellings, with the intent that they would be replaced with adequate public housing for those at the bottom of the income spectrum.67

Shanty towns, such as this one in Los Angeles, sprang up across the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s, prompting President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to launch the first federal housing programs. (Getty Images/ClassicStock/Charles Phelps Cushing)

In the late 1930s, while the economy remained depressed, inflation crept upward, making everything from food to housing increasingly expensive.68 The problem grew more acute when the United States entered World War II in late 1941 and the government began to ration strategic goods and materials. Congress responded in 1942 with the Emergency Price Control Act. Part of the law regulated rents in any area of the country considered a center of war activity. Rent was capped and landlords were limited in their ability to evict tenants.69

Postwar Developments

In the 1950s and early 1960s, it became clear that existing federal funds to construct and support affordable housing, coupled with rent payments, were not enough for landlords to maintain adequate offerings. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson outlined his Great Society vision, a complex social reform plan intended to provide Americans the opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.

The initiatives and legislation enacted as part of Johnson's plan included the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), elevating the issue of affordable housing to Cabinet-level attention. HUD was created by the 1965 Housing and Urban Development Act, which also provided federal money to revitalize urban neighborhoods, set minimum housing standards and created rent subsidies.70

More federal money started flowing to local public housing agencies to help with upkeep of affordable housing projects. Congress also developed new programs to provide subsidies to private property owners to create incentives to rehabilitate buildings with the intent of turning them into affordable housing. In 1969, Congress set its own definition of what affordable meant when it passed the Brooke Amendment that capped at 25 percent the amount of a person's income that could go toward public housing rent. (Congress later increased that portion to 30 percent, where it remains today.)71

Subsidies led to a boom of affordable-housing construction. Initially, construction focused on high-rise housing projects, but these were prohibited for families with children in 1968 due to concerns about high crime rates and the concentration of poverty. In turn, more small, mixed income properties were built.72 But when owners paid off their mortgages or their HUD contracts expired, many units were returned to the wider rental market and affordable housing stock fell.

At the same time, the federal government shifted its view on who was responsible for providing affordable housing, in part because conservatives viewed housing projects as failures. In 1973, Republican President Richard Nixon stopped HUD from building new rental housing and affordable homes. The next year, Congress passed the Housing and Community Development Act. Among other provisions, the law amended Section 8 of the National Housing Act to give federal vouchers to low-income individuals to rent a house on the private market. Under the program, renters were to spend 30 percent of their income on rent, and the voucher covered the rest.

The 1974 act also created the Community Development Block Grant program and shifted much of the decision-making authority for housing programs to local governments.73 The result was the development of significant differences in affordable housing projects from state to state. In some, landlords were required to accept voucher tenants, while in other states they could refuse these renters without ramifications.74

The Robert Taylor Homes, built in 1962 on Chicago's South Side, sought to provide decent affordable housing to the city's lower-income residents. It and other large-scale projects later came to symbolize what critics said was the failure of public housing policies. (Getty Images/Hedrich-Blessing Collection/Chicago History Museum)

Similarly, differences in how state and local governments allocated their federal funds meant available housing stock varied from state to state. The national average wait time for someone with a voucher to get housing is currently more than two years, but the wait can be exceedingly long in some places. In Los Angeles, for example, the housing wait list for these renters was closed for the 13 years leading up to 2018 because demand far outpaced availability.75

In 1986, the federal government took aim at the shortage of affordable rental homes by creating the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to motivate developers to build or rehabilitate rental properties for low-income tenants. At a cost of $9.5 billion per year, the tax credit is the largest federal program seeking to encourage greater development of affordable rental housing. Since the program began, more than 2 million units have been constructed or rehabilitated.76 In 1990, Congress passed the Cranston-Gonzales National Affordable Housing Act, which created new block grants for housing.77

In 1999, the federal government again pulled back from its role in constructing affordable housing when it revised the Housing Act with the Faircloth Amendment. The change prohibited the federal government from building or funding new affordable housing projects. Instead, HUD is only allowed to replace units on a one-for-one basis, essentially capping public housing units at the 1999 level. The amendment was part of a broader view that existing social assistance programs — including public housing — were a failure that trapped Americans in a cycle of poverty. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the amendment is “the most counterproductive part of this troubling public housing law.”78

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a repeal of the amendment in July 2020 as part of a broader infrastructure measure, the Moving Forward Act, but the Republican-led Senate did not take it up.79

Economic Downturns Spur Action

The Great Recession forced the federal government to act again to aid struggling renters and homeowners. In 2008, as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, Congress created the National Housing Trust Fund, which provides grants to states to build, preserve, rehabilitate and operate affordable housing. Ninety percent of any money provided by the federal government through the fund must go toward affordable rental housing, while the remainder can help first-time homebuyers.

The program is intended to serve the lowest-income individuals. Seventy-five percent of funds for rental housing must serve households earning no more than 30 percent of the area median income or federal poverty limit. No funds can be used for households earning above 50 percent of the median income.80 In 2014, some congressional supporters of the program pushed for a funding level of $3.5 billion annually, but the funding adopted by Congress was far below that level.81 The first grant, totaling $174 million, was made in 2016.82 An additional $219 million was made available to states in 2017, and another $267 million was added to the program in 2018. Although all block grant funds are meant to serve those on the lowest end of the income spectrum, states have flexibility in how to target that money to meet the needs of their populations.

The same year the first trust fund grant was made, The Eviction Lab began a long-term project to collect data on the annual number of evictions in the United States. The group estimated there were around 900,000 evictions per year, affecting 2.3 million people, or 6,300 individuals per day.83 According to Matthew Desmond, principal investigator at The Eviction Lab, this is likely an undercount because in some states eviction proceedings are sealed, some records are hard to collect and other evictions are handled informally.84

In part, evictions are driven by incomes that do not keep pace with rent. Between 1995 and 2017, median rent rose by more than 70 percent, while real median household income grew less than 19 percent.85 More than 10.5 million households spend more than half their income on rent. Of these families, most do not receive rental assistance.86 As of 2017, only an estimated 2.2 million households received Section 8 vouchers to help cover their housing costs and 1.2 million families lived in public housing.87

A renter talks to Maricopa County constables serving an eviction order in October in Phoenix. Black and Hispanic women are more likely to face eviction than men, according to those who study housing trends. (Getty Images/John Moore)

In 2019, Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced the Eviction Crisis Act to provide emergency assistance to extremely low-income individuals. The bill would award federal grants to states and localities to provide social services to renters at risk of eviction and help them meet their financial obligations or transition into a new home. It would also create grants for assistance programs that seek to ensure those experiencing a financial crisis are not at risk of eviction.88

“Today in America, an unexpected illness, a car accident or a family emergency can lead to a family being evicted from their home and falling into a cycle of poverty that lasts for years,” Bennet said.89 The bill did not receive a floor vote.

By March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was having an increasing impact on the United States. As more state and local governments implemented stay-at-home orders, nonessential businesses were shuttered. That left many Americans without a paycheck, or any way to pay their rent. On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the Cares Act, which halted evictions for 120 days for certain rental units and also prohibited landlords from charging fees against a tenant for nonpayment of rent. To be eligible, a renter must be in a property either participating in a federal assistance program or one financed by a federally backed mortgage.

The program covered most federal housing programs, including Section 8 voucher households and those properties receiving the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. About 28 percent of renters were covered by the moratorium.90 At the same time, the majority of states, either at the state or local level, instituted a variation of an eviction moratorium to protect renters in their own jurisdictions.

The patchwork of temporary solutions started expiring throughout the summer and fall, including the Cares Act moratorium, which ended July 24, 2020. This once again left renters unsure whether they would be evicted and landlords uncertain about how to continue collecting rent to pay their own bills without running afoul of any existing eviction ban.

On Sept. 1, then-President Donald Trump gave the CDC authority to stop evictions until the end of 2020, acting under the agency's powers to institute measures to stop the spread of a virus. “I want to make it unmistakably clear that I'm protecting people from evictions,” Trump said.91

The new moratorium protected individuals making less than $99,000 per year who could demonstrate that they had a financial hardship related to COVID-19, had made attempts to find other financial means to cover rent and could be homeless if evicted.92 The CDC moratorium was eventually extended through June 30.93

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Current Situation

Congressional Action

One of the biggest challenges for landlords and renters is what happens once all the various eviction moratoriums are lifted. As it stands, there is no federal edict wiping out back-rent, fees, and utility costs, meaning renters collectively owe billions of dollars.

One solution was introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Her Emergency Rent and Mortgage Cancellation measure would cancel rent and mortgage payments for the duration of the pandemic, retroactive to April 2020. Both landlords and mortgage holders would apply through federal programs to receive funds to cover their losses from nonpayment. Her proposal did not receive a floor vote.94

Where Congress has focused more attention since the start of 2021 is on a larger pandemic relief bill that provides an additional $21.6 billion in rental relief to cover the cost of back rent and stave off a wave of evictions once moratoriums are lifted. That comes on top of the $25 billion in rent relief approved by Congress in December.95 The new bill also provides direct payments of up to $1,400 per person and extends federal unemployment insurance benefits. Previous stimulus checks and unemployment benefits have been crucial for some Americans to continue paying their rent.96

The $1.9 trillion relief package passed the House on Feb. 26, by a vote of 219-212, with two Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. President Biden urged the Senate to move quickly. “If we act now — decisively, quickly and boldly — we can finally get ahead of this virus,” Biden said, adding, “We can finally get our economy moving again.”97

To move the legislation through the Senate, Democrats relied on the so-called reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority for passage, rather than a supermajority of 60 votes. Still, Senate passage required some maneuvering to get a handful of reluctant Democrats on board. This included reducing from $400 to $300 federal weekly enhanced unemployment benefits and reducing the income threshold for the phaseout of the direct stimulus payments to individuals.

On March 11, President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief measure that provides $21.6 billion in rental assistance and direct one-time payments of $1,400 to eligible people. (Getty Images/Doug Mills)

Senate Republicans filed nearly 600 amendments. Only a portion were considered during a day-long voting session, and six were adopted. On March 6, the Senate passed the amended legislation 50-49 (Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, was not present).98 On March 11, the president signed the bill into law.99

On March 29, the CDC extended its eviction moratorium again, to run through June 30.

States Protect Renters

While the CDC eviction moratorium has kept many renters in their homes, a handful of states are moving to find longer-term solutions to protect renters from eviction, homelessness, and long-term credit damage, both during and after the pandemic.

In California, where the state already had strong eviction protections and caps on rent before the pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill extending the state eviction moratorium through June 30. The bill also instituted eviction protections for certain renters who cannot cover their back rent after the moratorium ends. Landlords cannot use nonpayment as the basis for an eviction filing if a tenant has signed a declaration indicating that they are unable to pay all or some of their back rent, and rent arrears related to COVID-19 cannot be the primary reason a landlord does not rent to someone.100

Additionally, the bill established a $2.6 billion fund to cover rent arrears. Landlords who agree to forgive 20 percent of a tenant's rent arrears can apply to receive the remaining 80 percent from the state.101

To the north, Washington state's eviction moratorium is set to expire on June 30. Lawmakers want to wind the program down without causing a wave of evictions for the estimated 134,000 households behind on rent.102

One proposal would distribute $365 million in state and federal relief funds to tenants to catch up on rent, mortgage and utility payments. Another option the Legislature is considering would set aside $600 million in rental assistance for both landlords and tenants from the state's rainy-day fund and would expand a pilot program that works to keep tenant-landlord conflicts out of court.103

Others in the Washington Legislature are looking for solutions that address the housing challenges renters were already facing before the pandemic. Democrats proposed a permanent rental assistance fund to be paid for by a $100 fee on some real estate documents. Other ideas include mandating the right to counsel in eviction proceedings for low-income tenants, covered by state funds. Initial estimates say it would cost the state $13 million in the first year and $11.5 million per year after that.104

State Sen. Patty Kuderer, a Democrat, said her goal is to “set in place a structure that will stand up whenever we face this again.” Many housing advocates agreed. “This is an opportunity to say we're not just going to get back to the status quo; we have to get to something better,” said Michele Thomas with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.105

But opponents worry that the regulations Kuderer proposes could further squeeze landlords, forcing some, especially smaller family operations, to sell their properties or face foreclosure. “These people are hanging on by their fingernails,” said Republican state Sen. Phil Fortunato.106

Rental Relief Payments Lag

When Congress approved rental relief funds in its December and March COVID-19 packages, it allowed the money to go to states, which could then distribute it to qualified renters.

By the end of March, the initial $25 billion appropriated in December had been allocated. But there has been a lag in distributing the money to the renters who needed to cover back rent and utilities. “Right now, it's just sitting there in most states,” said David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, an affordable housing advocacy group. “The reality is that these things do take time and you want to do them well and not make mistakes because you went too fast.”107

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, only 15 states were distributing funds as of the beginning of March.108 In part, that is because state legislatures have to develop distribution plans. This has left the money mired in political disagreements.

In Idaho, for example, one state representative argued that the state should reject the federal money and instead rely on private charity to meet the need. The state ultimately agreed to accept nearly $176 million in rental assistance.109 Similarly, in Montana, some legislators questioned whether they needed their full $200 million share, and allocated only a portion.110

In Michigan, Republican lawmakers wanted the more than $622 million made available to renters in installments in an effort to promote transparency. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought to make it all available at once. “Our communities all have different capacity and needs, making it more difficult to assess how much of the federal funding should be made available and when,” said Eric Hufnagel, executive director of the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness. “We shouldn't be holding back any resources that would keep someone safe in their home right now.”111 Ultimately, the legislature won, and only $282 million was released to renters in March, with the remainder to be provided later.112

In North Carolina, which was allocated $546.5 million from the first tranche of federal funds, the legislature passed a bill that would place a limit on how much federal rental assistance each county can receive, based on population and median income. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's press secretary, Dory MacMillan, said such caps would “slow down aid while preventing some people from getting it in harder hit areas.” Republican state Sen. Ralph Hise, who wrote the county cap provision, said it would ensure the state delivers “these funds where the need is,” but that it would be possible to later redistribute funds to areas of greatest need if a county reaches its cap. Cooper had not indicated whether he planned to sign or veto the legislation.113

These and other delays in accepting and distributing the federal funds may pose a problem for states, because Congress requires that 65 percent of the money be spent by Sept. 30, after which the federal government can take back anything unused.

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Outlook

Eviction Surge?

In the near term, once the CDC moratorium ends, some lawyers, landlords and housing advocates expect an avalanche of eviction cases, which could take months to clear. “The kind of massive evictions that we could be looking at given the number of people who have not been able to pay their rent is pretty horrifying,” said Judith Goldiner, head of the civil law reform unit at the Legal Aid Society.114

Across the country, organizations like Goldiner's are preparing and training attorneys willing to assist renters who cannot otherwise afford representation. According to Flagg at the Legal Services Corporation, the vast majority of renters do not have a lawyer, yet studies indicate legal representation can be a critical tool in avoiding eviction.

In certain parts of the country, an eviction tsunami might be a major point of stress on both families and social services organizations. In some of the nation's largest cities, the rental population is significant. For example, according to 2019 Census Bureau estimates, 54 percent of those in the Los Angeles metro area live in rentals. Gary Blasi, professor of law emeritus at UCLA, cautioned that the city could face “the biggest mass displacement of people in one area of the United States in history.”115

In New York City, 67 percent of households are renters, and the city is already seeing homelessness levels not experienced since the Depression.116

Avoiding the eviction wave requires developing rehousing solutions at the state and local level or additional money from Congress to help renters cover months of back rent and fees, according to housing advocates. The rental assistance funds appropriated by Congress in December and March could still fall short of the need.117

Pinnegar of the National Apartment Association says making up lost revenue is critical for protecting landlords and the larger community. He says that for every dollar of rent, only 10 cents is profit. Another 10 cents goes to payroll, 12 cents is for capital expenditures and much of the rest covers property taxes, operating expenses and mortgage payments. The further landlords get into the crisis without financial intervention, “it begins to become significant,” he says.

Many also want to see support for tenants who are evicted to help them avoid long-lasting, multifaceted problems. According to Desmond of The Eviction Lab, “Eviction isn't just a condition of poverty; it's a cause of poverty.”118

Dunn of the National Housing Law Project warns that without a nationwide credit screening protection for those affected during COVID-19, many renters will struggle to recover. Eviction, he says, can lead to a downward spiral where renters are forced into substandard housing provided by landlords who do not care about an eviction on someone's credit report. This housing is often in neighborhoods with less access to jobs, poorer schools, environmental problems and higher crime rates.

But, Dunn says, solutions need to come from Washington. “I feel like if Congress doesn't take care of that, there's going to be lots and lots of states where it's just business as usual.”

Yentel, of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, remains hopeful that the patchwork solutions under consideration and being implemented will keep renters housed. However, she says, had comprehensive solutions been in place at the start of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people would not have lost their homes.

“That is a tremendous public policy failure on the part of the United States government,” Yentel says.

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Pro/Con

Are eviction moratoriums the right answer to the eviction crisis?

Pro Eric Dunn Director of Litigation, National Housing Law Project. Written for CQ Researcher, April 2021 In August 2020, the Aspen Institute released a report — led by Professor Emily Benfer and co-authored by nine other prominent housing experts — that predicted over 17.3 million renter households could face eviction within the ensuing two months, affecting up to 40 million individuals. This number represents more than 40 percent of the nation's 42.9 million renter households. While those were worst-case scenario numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey has consistently reported about 10 million U.S. households are delinquent in rent and millions of others lack confidence in the ability to pay the following month. The United States ordinarily sees about 900,000 evictions in an entire calendar year, according to a study by The Eviction Lab, a Princeton University research group. So having millions of evictions — whether 17 million, 10 million, or even 5 million — take place within a span of eight or 10 weeks would profoundly disrupt and devastate U.S. communities. Businesses, local governments, schools, places of worship and other institutions could hardly weather the sudden loss of so many workers, neighbors, students, and members. And such mass evictions would drive displaced renters into shared housing or homelessness, where they would struggle to practice the hygienic and social distancing protocols critical to curbing the spread of COVID-19. The only way to prevent such catastrophic mass evictions from occurring is through a combination of effective moratoria to block the immediate displacement of financially distressed renters, coupled with rent relief funding to help those renters cure accumulated arrearages and preserve their housing long-term. Though significant rental assistance has been appropriated, this has happened only recently and little of the funding has yet reached the tenants and landlords who need it. And while the eviction restrictions the United States has adopted through federal, state, and local governments have been flawed and still allowed hundreds of thousands of tenants to slip through the cracks, those restrictions have at least prevented what housing advocates have most feared — a wave of evictions sweeping millions of people into homelessness within a matter of weeks. So, yes, eviction moratoria absolutely are an appropriate and necessary response to the mass eviction threat. Existing moratoria should be strengthened and extended to the conclusion of the pandemic, and new protections added for those outside the reach of the current protections.

Con Michelle Minton Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute. Written for CQ Researcher, April 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented disruption in the American economy, leaving many unemployed and unable to pay monthly housing costs. These are compelling reasons to implement policies that support housing security during this extraordinary crisis, especially when disease control strategies hinge on social distancing. A government-imposed moratorium on evictions may seem like a simple way to keep people in their homes without costing the American taxpayer any money. But such policies are neither free of cost to the public nor free of consequences that could exacerbate housing insecurity and disparities long after the pandemic ends. Compared to other direct housing assistance, such as vouchers or credits for renters, an eviction moratorium is likely unconstitutional. It would also trigger a cascade of negative effects that would threaten the availability of affordable housing in the long term. The great irony is, taxpayers will end up paying for an eviction moratorium anyway. Eviction moratoria may delay eviction. But expect waves of evictions whenever and wherever they expire. Mass evictions will send displaced people scrambling, causing a sudden spike in demand for housing in those markets, increasing rental prices and making affordable housing harder to obtain. This will also overextend existing housing assistance programs, putting pressure on governments to increase funding for public housing. Prohibiting evictions will also impose financial strain on property owners, who must still make mortgage and property tax payments. Owners will postpone repairs, face bankruptcy or be forced into foreclosure — further reducing the quantity and quality of available housing. And what happens when months of unpaid rent come due? This could lead to crippling debt for many renters, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. Or, more likely, federal and state governments will step in and cover the financial cost of back rent. This means taxpayers will ultimately pay for eviction moratoria. Access to safe, stable housing profoundly influences a person's mental, physical and financial well-being. It is understandable that lawmakers and housing advocates want to prevent people from being evicted during a pandemic. But such policies aren't free — someone has to pay the rent. If government wants to keep people in their homes, it could send money to renters directly, allowing people to pay rent on time without hampering property owners' or lenders' ability to stay in business. Direct assistance would be more transparent for taxpayers, constitutionally legitimate and have fewer unintended consequences than sticking property owners with the bill.

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Discussion Questions

Here are some things to consider regarding housing and COVID-19:

• Why did the federal government and some state and local governments impose moratoriums on the eviction of tenants for failure to pay rent on time?

• Why have some landlords been able to evict tenants despite the moratoriums?

• What problems have eviction moratoriums created for landlords, and what are the potential wider effects of these problems?

• How do the housing problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic differ from those that arose during the Great Recession of 2007-09 or the Depression of the 1930s?

• The Seattle landlord written about at the start of the report, Rian de Laat, could have legally evicted her tenant, but decided not to. Do you think she made the right decision? Why or why not? What problems might de Laat encounter as a result of her decision?

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Short Features

During COVID-19, Nations Seek to Keep the Vulnerable Housed

In Spain, the government imposed an eviction ban to last up to six months after the government ended its emergency measures over the COVID-19 pandemic. It also required landlords to automatically renew leases and barred them from increasing rents for six months.1

In New Zealand, the government tied its ban on evictions for failure to pay rent to its strict stay-at-home lockdown orders. And it forbade landlords from increasing most rents. Evictions were permitted in instances of significant damage to an apartment or any illegal activity.2

These actions by Spain and New Zealand were part of a multifaceted global effort by many nations to keep their populations housed — and safe — during the pandemic-inspired recession. The most common actions included eviction moratoriums, direct income support to cover housing payments and rent deferrals.3

According to United Nations human rights experts, the lack of basic necessities such as housing or living in overcrowded spaces becomes a “death sentence” during COVID-19, especially for poor and marginalized communities.

“The right to housing should be a key element of response and recovery measures to the pandemic,” to include both housing the homeless and ending forced evictions, said Balakrishnan Rajagopal, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. “States should consider rent caps and subsidies for tenants and small landlords, and ensure that a global health crisis does not become a global housing crisis.”4

In Germany, where local and federal governments already had rent control measures in place before the pandemic struck, the federal government imposed an eviction ban in the last week of March 2020. Beginning on June 30, renters in arrears were given two years to pay any past-due amounts. If the renter fails to address outstanding arrears by June 2022, a landlord could then evict for nonpayment.5

To help tenants unable to pay their bills, the Spanish government introduced interest-free loans with a six-year payback period. These loans were paid directly to renters, who were expected to use the money to compensate their landlords in an effort to avoid further fallout from the virus-driven economic crisis.6

Local governments in Spain also instituted their own measures. In Barcelona, for example, the government advised landlords with available space to get these apartments rented within 30 days. If the landlord was unable to comply, the government could repossess the properties and convert them to affordable housing.7

A woman in Barcelona, Spain, retrieves the keys from her home in October, a day after a bank improperly evicted her family during the pandemic. Barcelona's government has told landlords with available space to rent the apartments or face having them seized and converted to affordable housing. (Getty Images/NurPhoto/Albert Llop)

In New Zealand, once a renter was 60 days behind on rent, a landlord could pursue eviction proceedings — but only if a court agreed that the individual had made no reasonable attempt to pay the rent. The measures reflected both public safety and landlord rights, according to Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Sustaining tenants in their current homes will help prevent further pressure on our welfare system at this time,” she said, but added, “It is not acceptable for tenants to abuse the current situation by refusing to pay rent when they have the capacity to do so.”8

In the Canadian province of British Columbia, the government chose multiple measures in March 2020 to stave off an eviction crisis, including implementing a ban on evictions until Sept. 1 and freezing rent hikes. The government also created a rent supplement program to provide between $300 and $500 per month per eligible household, which the renter could then use to pay their landlord. The rent supplement program, which expired on Aug. 31, helped about 86,000 households.9

When the eviction ban was lifted, to prevent renters from losing their homes, the British Columbian government announced that landlords would be required to give tenants until July 2021 to pay their rent arrears, so long as they were making regular monthly payments to catch up. Landlords were given flexibility as to how those repayments were structured.10

Some advocates for renters want all rent arrears forgiven and the rent supplement program extended, arguing that setting aside extra money to comply with the July deadline amounted to a rent increase that would significantly harm low-income families.11

In Venezuela, the president declared that all rent payments — for both homes and businesses — would be temporarily suspended, with the government covering the lost income for landlords.12 Further south, in Bolivia, the Congress passed legislation that cut household rents by 50 percent during quarantine. Bolivia already had an eviction moratorium in effect for the entire year, and the interim president banned utility shutoffs.13

Such programs were critical for keeping residents housed — especially as Latin America was, for a time last year, the global epicenter of the pandemic, according to health experts. The United Nations warned that an inability to control the virus' spread could force 45 million more people in the region below the poverty line.14

“The pandemic arrived in Latin America at a time when the region was already suffering a democratic disaster,” said Daniel Zovatto, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy and Latin America Initiative, referring to a wave of anti-government protests. “We were also in an economic situation that was already on a downward trend. When the pandemic came, it exacerbated and accelerated all these negative problems.”15

— Heather Kerrigan

[1] Emma Donaldson, “What Spain is doing to help rental tenants during the coronavirus pandemic,” Idealista, April 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/s6zph7s2.

[2] Amelia Wade, “Coronavirus Covid-19 lockdown: Rents frozen and evictions banned under emergency legislation,” NZ Herald, March 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ctb882hd.

[3] Konstantin A. Kholodilin, “Housing Policies Worldwide during Coronavirus Crisis: Challenges and Solutions,” DIW Berlin — German Institute of Economic Research, April 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/22hm6pfv.

[4] “Housing is key to COVID-19 response and recovery — UN expert,” U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Oct. 21, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/dffyzdn2.

[5] Jens Ortmanns and Thomas A. Beisken, “COVID-19 — FAQ's for Landlords and Tenants in Germany,” McDermott, Will & Emery, March 27, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/nazhj9mp.

[6] Donaldson, op. cit.

[7] Feargus O'Sullivan, “Barcelona's Latest Affordable Housing Tool: Seize Empty Apartments,” Bloomberg, July 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2xz27698.

[8] Wade, op. cit.

[9] “Rent hike in B.C. is frozen, but province says landlords can evict,” CBC, Aug. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/c5dbcjxw.

[10] Richard Zussman, “B.C. eviction ban to end Sept. 1, tenants have until July 2021 to pay unpaid rent,” Global News, July 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2uwaarfk.

[11] Kelvin Gawley, “‘Tsunami of evictions’ won't hit B.C. renters when moratorium lifts: Landlord BC,” News 1130, Aug. 24, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/znztpfmd; “Rent hike in B.C. is frozen, but province says landlords can evict,” op. cit.

[12] “Venezuela prohibits company layoffs and suspends credit collections over coronavirus,” Reuters, March 23, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/3sbcv5rn.

[13] Elizabeth Gonzalez et al., “The Coronavirus in Latin America,” Americas Society Council of the Americas, Feb. 10, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3eytzu9v.

[14] Jose Diaz Jr., Alex Pena and Manuel Bojorquez, “Latin America: The global epicenter of COVID-19,” CBS News, Aug. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/r6d34y5j.

[15] Ibid.

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Virginia Takes Aggressive Approach to Evictions Problem

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Richmond, Va., had one of the nation's highest renter eviction rates, at 11.4 percent in 2016.16

That was in part fueled by landlord-friendly policies and minimal state assistance for renters who could not meet their monthly obligations. And renters' challenges in Virginia increased during the pandemic. Around one-fifth of the state's population either missed a rent or mortgage payment or did not feel confident that they would be able to continue paying on time, the U.S. Census Bureau found.17

In March 2020, the state Supreme Court suspended all nonessential evictions, including those for failure to pay rent, through the first week of April; the court later extended that ban into September.18 While Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's administration touted the necessity of such a ban to ensure state residents could adhere to health guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19, landlords disagreed.

“It's really just kind of pulling the rug from underneath the housing industry and setting us up for a housing crash,” said Patrick McCloud, CEO of the Virginia Apartment Management Association. His concern was that by the end of the pandemic, there might be fewer available units, lower property values and reduced tax collections. “What people are missing right now is that the little things that are happening now are going to have consequences down the road,” he said.19

To institute a longer-term program that recognized the challenges for both renters and landlords, the state legislature, the governor and state housing authorities worked together to establish a multipronged solution. They allocated additional funds for the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia to provide representation to more tenants facing eviction proceedings. The state also set up StayHomeVirginia.com, a website to connect renters and homeowners with services to help them avoid eviction or foreclosure. And a new program authorized funding for localities to set up their own strategies to reduce evictions.

Another solution approved by the legislature during an August special session has drawn national attention for its efforts to represent the interests of all involved in the eviction process. The Virginia Rent and Mortgage Relief Program (RMRP) offers financial assistance to eligible individuals behind on rent as of April 20, 2020, and requires that renters and landlords work together to find a solution for payment of rent arrears before eviction proceedings can begin.

To qualify, a household must have lost income because of the COVID-19 pandemic and have an income at or below 80 percent of the area median income; when processing applications, the state first gave funding priority to households with an income below 50 percent of the area median income.20 If a renter is approved, the state pays the landlord directly, and the program places no cap on how much aid can be received.

The program has support from members of both political parties in the legislature, according to Pamela Kestner, chief deputy of the state's Department of Housing and Community Development. “How else are Virginians supposed to telework or learn from home if they don't have a home?” she asked.21 The RMRP, which expires in June, was funded with more than $550 million in federal and state money.

In November, Northam signed a revised state budget that drew on the RMRP to further restrict evictions. It requires landlords to send a letter to tenants who have missed one or more payments, outlining the amount owed and providing information about the RMRP. A tenant then has 14 days to either pay the rent arrears or work with the landlord to arrange a payment plan and apply for funding from the state.22 If the tenant either refuses to pay or allow the landlord to apply for RMRP funds on their behalf, the eviction could proceed. Beginning Jan. 1, landlords could also pursue an eviction if the tenant is denied funds, the program ran out of aid or the state takes more than 45 days to pay the landlord.23

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, center, both Democrats, watch as a COVID-19 testing site is set up in a lower-income area of Richmond, which had one of the nation's highest eviction rates before the pandemic. The state has been developing plans to help renters and landlords navigate the crisis and reduce evictions. (Getty Images/The Washington Post/John McDonnell)

As of Dec. 18, Virginia had provided $41 million in total rent relief to 13,000 households.24

Many landlord and tenant groups alike welcomed the RMRP program. “It's sort of a win for the landlord, the tenant, and just the community as a whole,” said Dipti Pidikiti-Smith, director of advocacy at Legal Services of Northern Virginia.25

“I'm surprised they're doing this,” said Tracey Benson, president of the National Association of Independent Landlords, who called the program “wonderful.”26 Bob Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association, says he appreciates that program dollars can be spent on past and future rent, “which is good because no one is assuming that we hit March 1 and everything is normal again.”

McCloud, the Virginia Apartment Management Association CEO, agreed with the program benefits, although he expressed reservations about money going straight to landlords rather than tenants. “We want to be helpful, but it sets up the question for where the state is headed when it comes to the concept of personal responsibility,” he said.

However, McCloud added, “there's a belief in some communities that the property owner isn't trying to help but we want to get past that myth…. We're certainly glad to help people.”27

— Heather Kerrigan

[16] The Eviction Lab, “Top Evicting Large Cities in the United States,” accessed March 29, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/t7erfpxa.

[17] Marie Albiges, “As evictions resume in Virginia, $50 million in help is on the way. Advocates say it's not enough,” The Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/aj67sx34.

[18] “Supreme Court of Virginia suspends all non-emergency evictions,” WHSV News, March 17, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2s8zp2bm; Marie Albiges, “Virginia Supreme Court declares another ban on evictions at Northam's request,” The Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/65d6u78.

[19] Albiges, ibid.

[20] Arianna Coghill, “The Eviction Freeze is Ending. What Happens Next for Virginia Residents?” Dogwood, Dec. 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2mryf23j.

[21] Brad Kutner, “Virginia's Covid Rental Relief Program Reflects State's Changing Politics,” Courthouse News Service, Dec. 20, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2twfp3xn.

[22] Simone McKenny, “Virginia Mortgage Relief program to offer housing assistance over the pandemic,” NBC 12, Jan. 1, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2tbmf599.

[23] Ned Oliver and Sarah Vogelsong, “With Northam's signature, new eviction and utility cut-off protections take effect,” Virginia Mercury, Nov. 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/w6ffzcu5.

[24] Coghill, op. cit.

[25] Daniella Cheslow, “Listen: In Virginia, Tenants And Landlords Praise Rent Relief Program,” WAMU, Jan. 4, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/z7x39k3f.

[26] Kutner, op. cit.

[27] Ibid.

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Bibliography

Books

Desmond, Matthew, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Crown, 2017. To shed light on evictions in the United States, a sociologist follows families in Milwaukee struggling with housing instability.

Phillips, Shane, Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach, Island Press, 2020. A professor and urban planner offers policy recommendations to address the affordable housing challenges facing communities across the country.

Rothstein, Richard, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Liveright, 2017. A housing policy expert argues that local, state, and federal laws promoted discriminatory practices that resulted in residential patterns of segregation that still exist today.

Articles

Dougherty, Conor, “Pandemic's Toll on Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up,” The New York Times, Feb. 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2p2vc58p. An economics reporter explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the lack of affordable housing.

Hepburn, Peter, and Yuliya Panfil, “The Black Hole at the Heart of the Eviction Crisis,” The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/69nzs88v. Researchers explain how a lack of nationwide, annual eviction data hinders effective responses to housing challenges.

Nova, Annie, “The CDC banned evictions. Tens of thousands have still occurred,” CNBC, Dec. 5, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/xwe727t6. A personal finance reporter explores why renters were still evicted despite the moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Olson, Walter, “Citing Public Health Authority, Feds Decree Nationwide Eviction Moratorium,” Cato Institute, Sept. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/37c2ymnk. A scholar questions the legality of the CDC eviction moratorium and considers arguments surrounding possible court challenges.

Schuetz, Jenny, “To weather the coming eviction crisis, cities need better rent relief programs,” Brookings Institution, Dec. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/8uuzaj8e. A researcher highlights an inability of many renters to cover arrears accrued during the pandemic and the policy questions surrounding increasing rental relief.

Swenson, Kyle, “The stimulus relieved short-term pain, but eviction's impact is a long haul,” The Washington Post, Feb. 8, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/455ccxfw. A journalist looks at the long-term effects an eviction can have on individuals seeking a safe and affordable place to live.

Reports and Studies

“America's Rental Housing 2020,” Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, Jan. 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/h7my6pkw. Housing experts look at trends in rental markets and advise local, state, and federal governments on ways to address the lack of affordable housing.

Benfer, Emily, et al., “The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis: an Estimated 30-40 Million People in America Are at Risk,” Aspen Institute, Aug. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/d7smatzw. Researchers explore the financial hardships that families are facing because of the coronavirus pandemic and the necessity of government intervention to protect renters.

Epure, Georgiana, “Protecting the Right to Housing during the COVID-19 Crisis,” Open Society Justice Initiative, Dec. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/au5ebsee. A research fellow explains the approaches countries have adopted to address housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jowers, Kay, et al., “Housing Precarity & the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts of Utility Disconnections and Eviction Moratoria on Infections and Deaths Across US Counties,” National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2021, https://tinyurl.com/p7zt3wxb. Duke University researchers analyze the effects of evictions and utility shutoffs on a person's ability to comply with COVID-19 hygiene measures.

McCarty, Maggie, and Libby Perl, “Federal Eviction Moratoriums in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Congressional Research Service, Jan. 26, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/h4fdwbjj. Researchers detail the federal eviction moratoriums by the CDC and in a 2020 pandemic relief bill known as the Cares Act.

Parrott, Jim, and Mark Zandi, “Averting an Eviction Crisis,” Moody's Analytics, January 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ju579uez. Economists review the rental situation in the United States and propose solutions to prevent a wave of evictions after the CDC eviction moratorium ends.

Reed, Davin, and Eileen Divringi, “Household Rental Debt During COVID-19,” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, October 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yevzm8u4. Community development researchers provide estimates on household rental debt to help policymakers determine the levels of assistance needed to avoid evictions.

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The Next Step

Affordable Housing

Cherone, Heather, “Lightfoot Unveils Plan to Boost Supply of Affordable Housing Across Chicago,” News WTTW, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2yyyx5vr. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced a proposal to create incentives for developers to build affordable housing in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Lavery, Patrick, “Lack of affordable housing squeezing many low-income NJ families,” New Jersey 101.5, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3s7bzrsv. Because of the pandemic, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is considering allowing higher-income groups to receive state funding usually reserved for affordable housing for lower-income people, but some activists oppose the move.

Scott, Anna, “LA affordable housing developer saves time and money on project for formerly homeless tenants,” KCRW, March 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/jdutk3a. A nonprofit developer in Los Angeles built eight units for formerly homeless tenants for half the price of the average affordable housing project and says such efforts could be a blueprint for other developers.

COVID-19

Arnold, Chris, “Landlords Struggling To Stay Afloat See Lifeline In COVID-19 Relief For Renters,” NPR, March 17, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2uz9pbef. Some landlords short on income during the pandemic are helping their tenants apply for federal rental assistance made available by COVID-19 relief packages.

Chen, Stefanos, “New York Renters in Covid Hot Spots Are Four Times More Likely to Face Eviction,” The New York Times, March 17, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ycn9jhmw. New York City landlords are seeking evictions nearly four times as often in neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19, which are predominantly Black and Latino communities.

Nova, Annie, “Covid cases could spike if eviction ban is allowed to lapse, experts warn,” CNBC, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/c2x4utfe. Researchers found that coronavirus cases and deaths soared when states allowed their eviction proceedings to resume after temporary bans.

Homelessness

Greenstone, Scott, “A hotel for homeless people opens in downtown Seattle today; here's a look inside,” Seattle Times, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/z5jd45t3. A Seattle hotel hurt by the lack of tourism during the pandemic will house 140 homeless people, with other hotels in the area joining the effort as well.

Hayden, Nicole, “Portland City Council assures residents that homeless quarters will not be allowed in parks,” Oregon Live, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/f2keub59. The Portland City Council is proposing rules that would make it easier to create shelters for the homeless to camp in RVs and tents, but it is also promising city residents that parks and other natural spaces will remain off limits.

Oreskes, Benjamin, et al., “Crackdown at Echo Park homeless encampment begins as LAPD moves in, clashes with protesters,” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2wz7hakw. Two hundred protesters slowed authorities' efforts to close a homeless encampment in a Los Angeles park.

State Action

Smith, Helen, “Washington's eviction moratorium extended through June 30,” King 5, March 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4ebuwp76. With the economy still struggling, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he is extending moratoriums on evictions and utility shutoffs for another three months.

Straub, Brendan, “Eviction moratorium costs some workers their jobs,” New York TV, March 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/rufru493. Some landlords are laying off workers because New York state's eviction moratorium, which is set to expire May 1, has reduced their income.

Wilson, Kate, “King County courts continue ordering evictions, despite moratoriums,” Crosscut, March 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/u6f4uy4v. Courts in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, have ruled that a provision in the state's eviction moratorium allowing landlords to evict tenants if they plan to move into the rental themselves supersedes the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's moratorium.

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Contacts

Competitive Enterprise Institute
1310 L St., N.W., 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20005
202-331-1010
cei.org
Think tank studying and advocating for policies that advance free-market ideals.

The Eviction Lab
Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
evictionlab.org,
research@evictionlab.org
Research team at Princeton University that collects data on evictions in the United States.

Foundation for Economic Education
1819 Peachtree Road, N.E., Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30309
404-554-9980
fee.org
Free-market think tank offering books, seminars, lectures and articles on economic issues.

Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies
1 Bow St., Suite 400, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-7908
jchs.harvard.edu
The center conducts research to inform policymakers, businesses and individuals about housing issues.

National Housing Law Project
1663 Mission St., Suite 460, San Francisco, CA 94103
415-546-7000
nhlp.org
Organization working with communities, advocates and others to advance housing rights and support affordable housing opportunities.

National Low Income Housing Coalition
1000 Vermont Ave., N.W., Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005
202-662-1530
nlihc.org
Nonprofit that analyzes data, advocates for, and educates policymakers in support of safe, affordable housing for low-income Americans.

Urban Institute
500 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, DC, 20024
202-833-7200
urban.org
Think tank that conducts social and economic research to offer solutions on housing and other issues for policymakers.

Go to top

Footnotes

[1] Abby Vesoulis, “Millions of Tenants Behind on Rent, Small Landlords Struggling, Eviction Moratoriums Expiring Soon: Inside the Next Housing Crisis,” Time, Feb. 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4v4r9mwu.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Emily Benfer et al., “The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis: an Estimated 30-40 Million People in America Are at Risk,” Aspen Institute, Aug. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/uzwvynsu; Annie Nova, “CDC will extend national eviction ban through June 30,” CNBC, March 29, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/53wmkzmh.

[4] “Will You Count? Renters In The 2020 Census,” Census Counts 2020, accessed Feb. 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/76yh49pm; Laurie Goodman, Karan Kaul and Michael Neal, “The CARES Act Eviction Moratorium Covers All Federally Financed Rentals — That's One in Four US Rental Units,” Urban Institute, April 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yuyzw3kk.

[5] “HUD and Census Bureau Release New American Housing Survey,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sept. 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/4zds6r4n.

[6] Lucia Mutikani, “U.S. economy loses jobs as COVID-19 hammers restaurants, bars,” Reuters, Jan. 8, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/9869w63s.

[7] Jim Parrott and Mark Zandi, “Averting an Eviction Crisis,” Moody's Analytics, January 2021, https://tinyurl.com/25jb9ety.

[8] Sarah Kleiner, “Without Financial Assistance, Renters are on the Brink of Eviction, Financial Ruin,” Center for Public Integrity, Dec. 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/p7zj4ztt.

[9] Goodman, Kaul and Neal, op. cit.

[10] “Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Register, Sept. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/4dss6kf.

[11] The Eviction Lab, data current as of March 20, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/p8jcmraw.

[12] Michael Casey, “Renters still being kicked out during COVID-19 pandemic despite nationwide eviction ban,” The Associated Press/Chicago Tribune, Nov. 29, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/8p2wczmb.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Nick Penzenstadler and Josh Salman, “Landlords skirt COVID-19 eviction bans, use intimidation and tricks to boot tenants,” USA Today, Jan. 26, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/dbxhuvvz.

[15] Kyle Swenson, “Ruling overturning CDC eviction moratorium injects confusion into housing market,” The Washington Post, Feb. 26, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3eeferat; Annie Nova, “Federal judge in Ohio rules CDC exceeded authority with eviction ban,” CNBC, March 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/9nfp5ucf; and “Department of Justice Issues Statement Announcing Decision to Appeal Terkel v. CDC,” The United States Department of Justice, Feb. 27, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/5yr3cwtv.

[16] Kleiner, op. cit.

[17] Peter Hepburn, Renee Louis and Matthew Desmond, “Racial and Gender Disparities among Evicted Americans,” Sociological Science, Dec. 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/wvk4rhdw.

[18] Peter Hepburn and Yuliya Panfil, “The Black Hole at the Heart of the Eviction Crisis,” The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/62ap65d8.

[19] Robert Polner, “Can the US Prevent a Massive Wave of Evictions?” New York University, Feb. 8, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/5cm2e3ef.

[20] Brain Albrecht, “Cleveland eviction riot of 1933 bears similarities to current woes,” Plain Dealer, March 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/ch8rttvb.

[21] Parrott and Zandi, op. cit.

[22] Daniel Flaming et al., “Locked Out: Unemployment and Homelessness in the COVID Economy,” Economic Roundtable, Jan. 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3rkvhyfr.

[23] Zoe Christen Jones, “COVID-19 is driving New York City's record homelessness figures, advocates say,” CBS News, Dec. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2h4jydy3.

[24] Annie Nova, “More than $45 billion in rental assistance could soon be available. Here's how to apply,” CNBC, March 3, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/w6wue6t6.

[25] Parrott and Zandi, op. cit.

[26] Dale Smith and Clifford Colby, “Biden extends eviction moratorium until March 31: What renters should know,” CNET, Jan. 21, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/zj62j94c.

[27] Tony Romm, “Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus into law; some could see stimulus payments this weekend,” The Washington Post, March 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/975daec.

[28] Nova, op. cit.; Annie Nova, “States will soon start giving out $25 billion in rental assistance. How to apply,” CNBC, Jan. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/wezkn8pj.

[29] Hyojung Lee, “Who Owns Rental Properties, and Is It Changing?” Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Aug. 18, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/55sdjzur.

[30] Vesoulis, op. cit.

[31] Kleiner, op. cit.

[32] Kathryn M. Leifheit et al., “Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality,” SSRN, Nov. 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/nassvdr5.

[33] Parrott and Zandi, op. cit.

[34] Kleiner, op. cit.

[35] Thomas Massie, Twitter post, Sept. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2vdcept9.

[36] Joel Griffith, “Why COVID-19 Eviction Moratoriums Are Unnecessary, Unfair, and Economically Harmful,” Heritage Foundation, July 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxemmfd.

[37] Howard Husock, “The perilous side-effects of banning evictions mean it can't go on forever,” American Enterprise Institute, Jan. 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4vbnrjt4.

[38] Griffith, op. cit.

[39] “NAHREP Landlord Survey,” National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, July 2020, https://tinyurl.com/45829ypw.

[40] Brad Polumbo, “CDC's Eviction Moratorium Is an Unconstitutional Power Grab,” Foundation for Economic Education, Sept. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/5s8byhkj; “The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, March 2020, https://tinyurl.com/cadsspaw.

[41] “America's Rental Housing 2020,” Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Jan. 31, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/jjb6fa29.

[42] Jenny Schuetz, “How can government make housing more affordable?” Brookings Institution, Oct. 15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/csffbn9f.

[43] Francesca Mari, “What's Between 30 Million Americans and an Eviction Tsunami?” The New York Times, Dec. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2kea7ew2.

[44] Jim Parrott and Mark Zandi, “Congress needs to provide eviction and mortgage relief now before the coming crisis,” The Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yrutdsak.

[45] Emily Badger, “Many Renters Who Face Eviction Owe Less Than $600,” The New York Times, Dec. 13, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/2v5bewer.

[46] Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ganz and Katherine O'Regan, “Opinion: How to save millions of Americans from losing their homes,” The Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/px5s7ca.

[47] Norbert J. Michel, “Federal Policies Are Making Houses Unaffordable,” Heritage Foundation, April 4, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/4mpyuh9f.

[48] Tal Axelrod, “Sanders unveils $2.5 trillion ‘Housing for All’ plan,” The Hill, Sept. 18, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/4vck7cyh.

[49] Joel Griffith, “National Housing Controls Would Shrink Supply of Affordable Housing,” Heritage Foundation, March 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/4tc9jydk.

[50] “Week 25 Household Pulse Survey: February 17-March 1,” U.S. Census Bureau, March 10, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/23dtuvfx.

[51] Sophia Wedeen, “Black and Hispanic Renters Face Greatest Threat of Eviction in Pandemic,” Joint Center for Housing Studies, Jan. 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/447dhu8n.

[52] “Black Women Evicted At Higher Rates,” NPR, Feb. 22, 2010, https://tinyurl.com/2s4dn7ew; Peter Hepburn, Renee Louis and Matthew Desmond, op. cit.

[53] Kleiner, op. cit.

[54] Ted Houghton, “Want to recover from the pandemic and end homelessness? Build housing now,” The Hill, Feb. 4, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/7hh57ywb.

[55] Ellen, Ganz and O'Regan, op. cit.

[56] Kim Parker, Rachel Minkin and Jesse Bennett, “Economic Fallout From COVID-19 Continues to Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest,” Pew Research Center, Sept. 24, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/surwvjev.

[57] Vesoulis, op. cit.

[58] Yung Chun and Michal Grinstein-Weiss, “Housing inequality gets worse as the COVID-19 pandemic is prolonged,” Brookings Institution, Dec. 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/3btbrtfn.

[59] Parrott and Zandi, “Averting an Eviction Crisis,” op. cit.

[60] Matthew Desmond, “No place like home: America's eviction epidemic,” The Guardian, Feb. 12, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/ehcpe4jd.

[61] Edith Abbot and Katherine Kiesling, “Evictions During the Chicago Rent Moratorium Established by the Relief Agencies, 1931-33,” Social Service Review, March 1935, https://tinyurl.com/cr3nnycs.

[62] Brain Albrecht, “Cleveland eviction riot of 1933 bears similarities to current woes,” Plain Dealer, March 8, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/ch8rttvb.

[63] “A Brief Historical Overview of Affordable Rental Housing,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/52hhnmfc.

[64] Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017).

[65] “A Brief History of Housing Policy in the U.S.,” National Nurse-led Care Consortium, Oct. 29, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/h8bxrc8w.

[66] Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2017).

[67] “A Brief Historical Overview of Affordable Rental Housing,” op. cit.

[68] Christina D. Romer, “Why Did Prices Rise in the 1930s?” The Journal of Economic History, March 1999, https://tinyurl.com/pwx8y4n4.

[69] E.P. McCarron, “Rent Control and Evictions Under Emergency Price Control,” Marquette Law Review, April 1943, https://tinyurl.com/5c4da85u.

[70] “Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965,” Encyclopedia.com, https://tinyurl.com/3722a6xn.

[71] “A Brief Historical Overview of Affordable Rental Housing,” op. cit.; “American Families Face a Growing Rent Burden,” Pew Charitable Trusts, April 2018, https://tinyurl.com/6z3vu94a.

[72] John F. Bauman, Roger Biles and Kristin M. Szylvian, eds., “From Tenements to the Taylor Homes: In Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth-Century America,” Penn State University Press, 2000, https://tinyurl.com/3j5nstv3.

[73] “A Brief Historical Overview of Affordable Rental Housing,” op. cit.

[74] “A Brief History of Housing Policy in the U.S.,” op. cit.

[75] Aaron Schrank, “It's a long wait for Section 8 housing in U.S. cities,” Marketplace, Jan. 3, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/upwu9rkz.

[76] “What is the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and how does it work?” Tax Policy Center, updated May 2020, https://tinyurl.com/3tcaja5b.

[77] “A Brief Historical Overview of Affordable Rental Housing,” op. cit.

[78] Justin Gero, “The Most Consequential Housing Law You've Never Heard Of,” National Nurse-led Care Consortium, Aug. 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/mmntp3ka.

[79] “H.R.2 — Moving Forward Act,” congress.gov, https://tinyurl.com/3wxfw9ab.

[80] “HTF: The Housing Trust Fund,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, March 5, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/493awduv.

[81] “Letter signed by more than 1,800 advocates urging Congress to protect and expand the HTF,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, Dec. 18, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y2nupk79.

[82] “HTF: The Housing Trust Fund,” op. cit.

[83] David Brancaccio and Katie Long, “Millions of Americans are evicted every year — and not just in big cities,” Marketplace, April 9, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/4tvvcm4d.

[84] Ibid.

[85] Desmond, “No place like home: America's eviction epidemic,” op. cit.; Elise Gould and Zane Mokhiber, “Household income gains welcome in 2019 Census data, but may not be as strong as they first appear,” Economic Policy Institute, Sept. 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/s5uu6kc.

[86] “Federal Rental Assistance Fact Sheets,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Dec. 10, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/u5ycwn6w.

[87] Desmond, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” op. cit.; “Housing Choice Voucher Fact Sheets,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Aug. 9, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yyb6ney7.

[88] “S.3030 — Eviction Crisis Act of 2019,” congress.gov, https://tinyurl.com/5vs3cyn6.

[89] “Tell Congress to Enact the Bipartisan ‘Eviction Crisis Act,’” Opportunity Starts at Home, accessed Feb. 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/kjnbkdtu.

[90] Maggie McCarty and David H. Carpenter, “CARES Act Eviction Moratorium,” Congressional Research Service, April 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ycxztykk.

[91] Dartunorro Clark, “Trump gives CDC broad authority to stop evictions during pandemic,” NBC News, Sept. 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/3vsj2yux.

[92] “Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19,” Federal Register, Sept. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2y5zhe9v.

[93] “Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19,” Federal Register, Feb. 3, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yzmkxm38.

[94] Rep. Ilhan Omar, “Emergency Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Legislation,” April 22, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/5crkj4uj.

[95] Alicia Adamczyk, “Here's what's in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that just passed the House,” CNBC, March 1, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/36p89tb7.

[96] Conor Dougherty and Gillian Friedman, “They're Making the Rent. Is It Costing Their Future?” The New York Times, Aug. 21, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/n8b5rptk.

[97] Thomas Franck, “The House passed Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus bill — here's what's next,” CNBC, March 3, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/kvy9p38v.

[98] Jennifer Shutt, “Senate passes massive COVID-19 relief bill, sending changes back to House,” Roll Call, March 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/pu3nuv86.

[99] “Remarks on Signing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” Executive Office of the President, March 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/73h5xu37.

[100] “Governor Newsom Signs Legislation to Extend Eviction Moratorium and Assist Tenants and Small Property Owners Impacted by COVID-19,” Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Jan. 29, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/53zxv8t3.

[101] “Legislature approves bill with $2.6 billion in federal funds for unpaid rent,” California Apartment Association, Jan. 28, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/45j2xrcr.

[102] “Inslee announces extension of eviction moratorium, expansion of vaccine eligibility, long-term care visitations may resume,” Office of the Governor of Washington, March 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4az5m48j; Brandon Block, “Civil right to counsel bill passes Senate in preparation for end of eviction moratorium,” The Olympian, March 8, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/mdzu54ey.

[103] Sydney Brownstone and Heidi Groover, “Washington lawmakers look for ways to exit the eviction moratorium — and prevent the fallout,” The Seattle Times, Feb. 17, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2vkvnad.

[104] Brownstone and Groover, op. cit.; Brandon Block, “Washington Senate bill would give tenants right to counsel and stop no-cause evictions,” The Olympian/The Columbian, Jan. 25, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/3dvz3bhe.

[105] Brownstone and Groover, op. cit.

[106] Heidi Groover, “Washington state lawmakers advance eviction protections as end of moratorium approaches,” The Seattle Times, March 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2rmj89et.

[107] Andrew Ackerman and Will Parker, “Millions of Tenants Fall Further Behind on Rent as They Await Federal Covid-19 Assistance,” The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/txbm6hc9.

[108] Nova, “More than $45 billion in rental assistance could soon be available. Here's how to apply,” op. cit.

[109] Kriston Capps, “GOP State Lawmakers Are Slowing Emergency Rental Dollars from Congress,” Bloomberg CityLab, Feb. 12, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/fdttw95u; Betsy Z. Russell, “Lawmakers agree to let Idahoans tap $175M in federal rental assistance,” Idaho Press, Feb. 8, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2dsnwpn2.

[110] Alex Brown, “Tenants Struggle Amid Patchwork of State Rental Relief Efforts,” Stateline, Feb. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2v4cf9t7.

[111] Nushrat Rahman, “Program to help Michigan renters avoid eviction on hold until Legislature approves funding,” Detroit Free Press, Feb. 2, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/47tm8vhy.

[112] Caroline Llanes, “Federal money for emergency rental assistance available to Michiganders starting this week,” Michigan Radio, March 15, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/357jjev6.

[113] Ben Sessoms, “General Assembly bill would slow federal rental assistance, state official says,” The News & Observer, March 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/kbmhny2v.

[114] Jonah Engel Bromwich, “The Evictions Are Coming. Housing Activists Are Ready,” The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/z98wkrf9.

[115] Dale Maharidge, “How the United States Chose to Become a Country of Homelessness,” The Nation, Jan. 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/z5szy9am.

[116] Ibid.; “Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City,” Coalition For The Homeless, updated March 2021, https://tinyurl.com/2hus5ur2.

[117] Jacob Passy, “‘This is just slowing the clock on evictions’: Why the CDC's moratorium on evictions won't solve America's looming $100 billion rental crisis,” MarketWatch, Sept. 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/f8x993nt.

[118] Terry Gross, “First-Ever Eviction Database Shows ‘We're In the Middle Of A Housing Crisis,’” NPR, April 12, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5fn4x7y.

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About the Author

After graduating from George Washington University, Heather Kerrigan started her journalism career at Governing magazine, reporting on state and local politics and policy, with a focus on the public workforce, the environment, health care, education and technology issues. Since co-founding River Horse Communications, Heather has offered freelance editorial services to multiple outlets, including blogging for two government-focused publications. She is the author of Retire Rich With Your 401(k) Plan. Her most recent CQ Researcher report was on “Future of the Book.”

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