What Happens When the Eviction Bans End?

[Newest Reality]

States are reopening courts to eviction hearings even as coronavirus-driven job losses continue, setting the stage for “a housing crisis of unparalleled magnitude.”

Last week, a crowd of about 30 people lined up in a single-file, socially distanced line outside the district court in Petersburg, Virginia. Among them was a 31-year-old woman who moved to Petersburg last summer with her 9-year-old son. The woman, who asked to be identified only by her last name, Edwards, was among the very first residents of Virginia to face eviction hearings since that state issued a moratorium on removing renters who’d fallen behind on their rent because of coronavirus-related job loss.

She’d been fleeing danger, Edwards says: An abusive partner forced her and her son to leave her home in North Carolina with almost nothing but what she could carry. But in the year since, she’d found a place to rent in Petersburg near her father and a job with an airline at Richmond International Airport. Then the coronavirus pandemic arrived, and her life turned upside down again. The airline let her go in March; the work she does part-time as a nail stylist also dried up due to the shutdown. She filed for unemployment insurance, but her benefits didn’t arrive until May. And she got behind in her rent.

“I finally got myself situated,” Edwards tells CityLab. “Then this pandemic happens. Now I’m risking being homeless again — not due to the situation I’m in, but because the whole world is in this situation, and the courts are not doing anything to help.”

She says she agreed to pay what she could for the April rent, but she and her landlord argued over the actual payment. Police served her with a notice of eviction on April 21, her birthday. At the time, civil rights advocates were pressing the governor, the courts, and the legislature to extend the eviction moratorium that Virginia, like many other states, passed in the early days of the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/05/pay-rent-eviction-ban-coronavirus-housing-crisis-landlord/612277/

[Budi]

1. It is going to leave a lot of people homeless, ruined credit & a past rent debt to pay

I've read that many landlords are already filling out legal eviction notices, & the #'s are in the thousands.

Pay the past due or get out & go to court.

[JustGene]

2. They lock you up for non-payment here AR

[crickets]

3. The country is about to see an explosion of homelessness.

The events of the day take on an even more sinister aspect given what's coming.

[Newest Reality]

4. Which is

Which is one more big, hot, burning coal on the fire we already have. This is going to add more insult to our injuries and pour salt on a bad wound.

It's not going to go well.

[JmAln]

5. We need large scale debt forgiveness.

Without that, we are heading towards another great depression. You can't evict people and foreclose on properties on a massive scale without devastating consequences for the economy. I'm afraid the GOP will drag their feet on taking the necessary steps though. What a mess.

[Newest Reality]

6. It should be clear that...

With all the unrest now and protests the last thing you should want is scores of people in shock, fear, despair and hunger with NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.

When enough gasoline gets poured on this blaze it is going to start to impact all of us in greater ways. It will be unavoidable. We will start to have more skin the game, as they say. We can't be bystanders if that happens.