Leylany, a 29-year-old resident of the Pico-Union area in Los Angeles, told Spectrum News 1 recently about the crisis the pandemic imposed on her family. They lost their jobs and savings, and now they are seven months behind on rent and facing eviction. They are hoping for emergency help from the government, including the city. “I’m praying I receive that help, because if we don’t, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.
A pandemic eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control, which protected at least some renters, is set to continue only to June 30, unless it is further extended. And the moratorium is now in jeopardy because of court rulings challenging the CDC’s authority to issue it. Tens of thousands of people have already been evicted since the pandemic began. Millions more face eviction when the moratorium, such as it is, expires. And this rent delay – which is not rent forgiveness – leaves many with a huge back rent they must pay when the moratorium expires, or face eviction. Billions of dollars in assistance promised to tenants (which is not enough) has still not reached those who need it, while many large landlords have reaped huge profits during the crisis.
By one estimate, 12 million renters are behind an average of $5,000 each on rent. Homeless activists and advocates are reporting a large jump in the number of people newly entering homelessness in the past year. Many groups are calling for rent cancellation. The LA Tenants Union is calling on Los Angeles tenants “to choose food not rent and demand rent forgiveness for the duration of the crisis.”
A Boston activist, Marvin Martin, told a reporter there recently that things were bad for tenants before the pandemic. “We can’t go back to the way things were,” he said. “We’ve got to decrease the cost of housing. We’ve got to decrease the cost of living. We’ve got to tear everything down and start over again.”
Housing is a human right. We need a halt to all evictions, cancel the back rent, and a national housing guarantee for all.
