Over the last year and a half, renters have been safeguarded from the threat of eviction due to late payments as a result of critical legislation passed during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was enacted to shield individuals and families from some of the effects that the virus had on the US economy. During a time of great uncertainty with the lack of jobs to the risk of health problems, the eviction moratorium relieved some of the burden on citizens.
Now, this rule failed to pass Congress and was recently struck down by the Supreme Court following an attempt by the CDC to maintain this safety net. While significant time has passed, renters are still struggling to keep up with their payments as it is “estimated that roughly 2.5 to 3.5 million American households are behind on rent, with landlords owed as much as $17 billion.” Additionally, there will be about “750,000 US households” that will face evictions by the end of this year.
As evictions rise sharply over the next few months, the scale at which this will occur will negatively impact the US economy as people will return to worrying about their rent that they may owe from the time they didn’t pay over the course of the pandemic. This can lead to lower job growth, decrease in household consumption, and higher rates of homelessness. Not to mention the risk of spreading the unrelenting variant of COVID-19 that is now resurging in case numbers nationally. On the other hand, there is a need for landlords to be fairly compensated for what they provide as they also have bills to pay in addition to the costs to maintain their properties. Some landlords might be in a similar situation to their renters as they need to catch up on payments from a year ago.
Ultimately, both sides of this housing crisis have or will suffer in the coming months. Without immediate action from Congress on meaningful legislation to relieve this tension, the economy will pay dearly for the explosion of this powder keg of debt.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
The Danger of Ending the US Eviction Moratorium
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2 comments:
The author of this post did a great job summarizing the article. I am surprised that this issue hasn't gained more media attention as it seems emergent and will affect millions of people in the United States. However, if we change an angle and try to think less pessimistically, then would the end of the U.S. eviction moratorium ease the recent stress caused by the increasing number of people dropping voluntarily out of the labor force? This might stimulate the incentives for people to actively seek employment opportunities.
I think that lifting the eviction moratorium will certainly incentivize people to return to work again.
But pulling the rug from underneath all of these renters will further destabilize the current economic landscape. While I think it is time to move away from a strict eviction ban, there must be further action to ease us back into a more stable economy that is fair for both sides.
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