Rent During COVID-19
Housing.
All countries are bound by international human rights law to provide shelter and security for their citizens and yet somehow, the United States lags far behind on that promise, despite our resources and abilities.
Without a doubt, many of us are well aware of the health crisis we are facing. But the economic crisis— particularly housing, and more specifically renting— is just beginning to unfold.
Pay attention:
All the jobs created during the recession disappeared in 6 weeks. No jobs mean no income— and for a majority of Americans, more than half of their income is spent on paying their rent.
I don't think many of us understand the gravity of this. A vaccine may come in 6 months, 12, or 18. But for the average American, that does not matter. What about today? What about this month? What about when rent is due?
A stay-at-home order only works......if you have a home.
So behind front-line workers, health care professionals, the elderly, immune-compromised, foster youth, and the houseless, you should add renters to the list of who is most vulnerable during this pandemic.
2.3 million Americans did not pay rent in April, and giant corporations like Urban Outfitters, Cheesecake factory, and Subway did not either. But the difference is that giant corporations have the ability to leverage and negotiate their capital in ways that average Americans do not.
Instead many have to rely on the generosity of their landlords.
So many of you are probably thinking..... "so why don't we just cancel rent for everyone? No one should be paying rent during this pandemic."
If only economics was that simple.
Canceling rent would in theory have a lot of downstream effects. When you pay rent, that money does not get fully pocketed by your landlord (or at least it shouldn’t).
That person uses that money to pay the mortgage on the building, insurance, repairs, utilities, and then the catch: property taxes.
And as you know, property taxes help pay for essential services such as firefighters and teachers. You might have noticed that not a single state or city has rolled out a 'Cancel all Rent' policy.....and it's because states and cities are all ready financially struggling.
This...this is where evictions come into play.
Let's clear the air right now— before this pandemic, America already had an evictions crisis. Landlords were filing over 2 million evictions each year. And those are just the legal ones. That number increases when you add in 'self-help' evictions: shutting off utilities, changing the locks, or removing a person's belongings from their home.
With COVID....we are going to see it get worst. This will be the crisis we deal with after we find the vaccine.
The government knows this by the way. In their stimulus bill, under the CARES Act, they enacted a policy of stopping evictions for 4 months. And here comes the other catch— it only applied to public housing (because it is federally funded by HUD) or rentals backed with federal mortgages (totally inaccessible by the way because how the hell are you supposed to figure that out when most renters don't even know their landlord's last names but I digress).
Put another way, this policy only covers 28% of rental units in America. And did I forget to mention that it only covers 4 months?
All of these things— they are band-aids trying to cover bullet wounds. We don't have a national eviction cancellation program- we have an eviction postponement program.
Your next question is probably along the lines of "can't a renter go to court? Can they fight this?" The short is answer yes and yes.
The truth? It's another flawed system: Housing Court. And boy is it a shit show.
The bureaucracy of housing court is a jungle gym and one misstep means your case is thrown out and you lose. Most hearings don't even last ten minutes. Even to file is confusing and unlike most proceedings like in criminal court— you don't have the right to a lawyer. And it makes a world of difference: in 2017 NYC became the first city to pass a ‘right to counsel law' and in the first year evictions went down by 11%.
The best defense any tenant has in housing court is the ‘implied warranty of habitability.' It requires a landlord to keep your unit livable and it is a law in every state except for Arkansas. You can use this against your landlord if they have not been keeping the property up and it helps you stay in your home. It works over 50% of the time.
The issue? Unless you're a lawyer.....you've never heard of it.
So now you're excited, right? We just need to spread the word about this awesome law that can save millions of lives......not so fast.
Let's say you win the case.
You can still be screwed by something called the ‘Tenant Blacklist'. In housing court, there are people who work for companies who sit and collect your name (whether you win or lose) and sell your name to other landlords in your area and they blacklist you from accessing other housing options. They simply won't rent to you.
There is no winning if you are a renter in America. Evictions don't just mean you lose your home— it has health, poverty, educational, gender, race, and criminal implications. It's one domino, in a never-ending spiral that can trap you indefinitely.
What's beyond frustrating is the fact that evictions used to be rare. So rare that they would draw crowds......now, they are so normalized, that we literally think that it's a part of the housing process. We don't even question why evictions are allowed in the first place. Never mind the fact that they are a clear human rights violation...but I digress.
Did I tell you why evictions are so common yet? They are more efficient and cheaper to do, than to keep up maintenance and to listen to the needs of renters. And why would anyone spend money if you can save it and make more? They evict you and because demand is so high, they are confident in knowing that someone else will take your place — sometimes, in a matter of hours.
I just unloaded a lot of gloom in this post. Don't worry, there's a silver lining. I linked a website that is user-friendly for renters. It lets them know if their rental building is federally backed to know if they qualify for government assistance in that stimulus bill that was passed. It lets you know what eviction protections you have in your state, and if god forbid you have to go to housing court, it also helps you find legal assistance.
A long-term fight?
Let's end evictions for good, but definitely during COVID.
Email, call, write to your local city and state government officials and demand they protect human rights. And if you're obnoxious like me, you can even just read/send them this post I’ve written.
https://www.dontgetkickedout.com/
photo above by https://unsplash.com/@tomrumble?utm_source=squarespace&medium=referral
watch the video of this post