Coronavirus: Why US is expecting an 'avalanche' of evictions [View all]

[KY_EnviroGuy]

Coronavirus: Why US is expecting an 'avalanche' of evictions
By Jessica Lussenhop
BBC News

(I do not suggest you read this if you're having a rough day. It includes a number of very sad stories)

Read it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53088352

Excerpts:

As hair salons, churches and restaurants reopen across the US, so are eviction courts. Advocates and experts say that an unprecedented crush of evictions is coming, threatening millions of Americans with homelessness as a possible second wave of the pandemic looms.
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The federal CARES Act, which passed in early April, froze evictions for renters living in federally subsidised housing or in property backed by government loans. Surveys estimated that in the month of May, nearly a third of renters failed to pay their landlords on time, and over half had lost jobs due to the crisis.

But as the country begins opening up again, moratoriums are ending and 40% of states no longer offer renters any protection. The CARES Act protections only apply to less than one-third of the country's 108 million renters. Missouri is one of nine states in the US that never issued any type of statewide moratorium or stay on eviction proceedings, leaving it up to cities, counties and even individual courthouses to determine how to move forward. As temporary protections are falling away, like a patchwork quilt slowly fraying, hundreds of evictions are already under way in states like Missouri, Virginia and Texas. That could be sending thousands to homeless shelters or to double up with family, at a time when coronavirus cases are still on the rise in many places.

"No court anywhere should be evicting anybody until at least the pandemic has sufficiently subsided," said Eric Dunn, director of litigation for the National Housing Law Project. "Most people being evicted right now - it's because their incomes have been disrupted during the crisis. Where are they supposed to go? It's not like they have money to move somewhere else."

Included in the article are some heart-wrenching stories from real, hard-working people that are the victims of cold, heartless corporations and individual landlords.

Why aren't corporations and individual landlords going to bat for these tenants with the government rather than booting them out on the street?

Unfettered, unregulated capitalism silences the voice of those that suffer most across the globe..... .....