For Immediate Release From NLCH&P!
Each month as rent comes due, more and more Americans can’t pay it: the pandemic coupled with the resulting economic crisis means choosing between paying rent and putting food on the table. A recent estimate (https://community.solutions/analysis-on-unemployment-projects-40-45-increase-in-homelessness-this-year/) projects a 40-45% increase in homelessness this summer alone.
My fear is that the impact will be much worse. Before the pandemic, there was already a decades old (https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/journal_of_affordable_housing/volume_27_number_1/ah_27-1_12foscarinis.pdf
) affordable housing crisis in this country. Some 10 million Americans were doubled or tripled up with friends or relatives—due to lack of resources. According to the federal government estimate—a severe undercount—over 500,000 Americans slept on the streets or in shelters on a single night. (https://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2017_DontCountOnIt.png).
This burden has never been felt equally ((https://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Racism-Homelessness-and-COVID-19-Fact-Sheet-_Final_2.pdf).: deliberate policy choices have excluded Black, Brown and Indigenous people from housing and the opportunity that comes with it. As a result, people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately people of color (https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-causes-homelessness/inequality/
), even more so than other people living in poverty, as are renters (https://nlihc.org/resource/racial-disparities-among-extremely-low-income-renters) paying large percentages of their incomes on rent.
COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis have made this situation much worse. People who were already struggling are being squeezed even more; they are also more likely to get sick and die. Once homeless, people are especially vulnerable: staying home and keeping social distance are difficult or impossible. And once infected (https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-paper_clean-636pm.pdf), they are twice as likely to be hospitalized, two to four times as likely to require critical care, and two to three times as likely to die than the general public.
Eviction moratoria—which do nothing to abate the rent ultimately owed—are now expiring. Even those that remain in place can be ineffective in practice: without legal representation, tenants don’t know they have this protection and can’t assert it; while a few cities have recently enacted a right to counsel for low income renters facing eviction (https://citylimits.org/2020/02/28/citys-right-to-counsel-law-fosters-national-movement-in-housing-courts/), the vast majority have not. Proposals in Congress to extend and expand the federal eviction moratorium are pending but stalled in the Senate (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/eviction-crisis-housing-advocates-fear-waves-homelessness-moratoriums-expire-n1232846), as are desperately needed proposed federal rent relief funds and a proposal for a national right to counsel in housing court (https://maloney.house.gov/issues/coronavirus-covid-19/housing-rent-and-mortgage-assistance).
Meanwhile, some communities are placing people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in hotel rooms, as recommended by the CDC (https://nlchp.org/coronavirus/); some are buying hotels and converting them to affordable housing, contributing to longer term solutions. But others are continuing punitive policies such as sweeps—in direct contravention of CDC guidance—risking the health and safety not only of those who are “swept” but entire communities (https://khn.org/news/sweeps-of-homeless-camps-run-counter-to-covid-guidance-and-pile-on-health-risks/).
Thanks to the activism of millions of people and the BLM movement, we have a critical opportunity for real change. Funds now being spent on criminal justice responses to homelessness should be redirected to housing and other community supports (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akzk5j/cities-are-realizing-its-time-to-stop-calling-the-police-on-homeless-people): Housing, not handcuffs, is the solution (https://nlchp.org/housing-not-handcuffs/). At the same time, momentum is growing for the human right to housing: Poor renters must be protected from eviction into a pandemic, through a national moratorium and real rent relief. And the pre-existing crisis must be addressed to ensure enough affordable housing for all, and a level playing field in court to protect it in practice.
Maria Foscarinis
Founder & Executive Director
Posted By: agnes levine
Thursday, July 16th 2020 at 3:20PM
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