Democrats Keep Dropping the Ball on the Eviction Crisis
Millions of renters are at risk of eviction. And it’s the fault of Democrats.
Before moving to North Carolina, my family rented a lovely townhouse in Edgewater, New Jersey. In addition to the view of midtown Manhattan, Edgewater’s primary appeal was its schools. And since an elementary school was only a block away, we could walk our kids to class each day.
Sadly, our two years in Edgewater were an absolute nightmare, thanks to our landlord. Before our movers could unload our belongings, there was trouble. As we moved in, our landlord showed up unexpectedly. We had not met him previously, but the real estate agent told us he was a personal trainer to celebrities.
To our collective horror, what we assumed was a welcome visit was instead a notice that he planned on living on the bottom floor of the three-level townhouse we’d just rented. For the next six months, we engaged in a crazy battle to evict our landlord — paying $2600 a month in rent plus utilities all while. Even though we spent thousands in legal fees, it still took months to get a hearing in Bergen County’s glacial court system. When he moved his cousin and her two children into the 800 square foot space on the bottom floor, we nearly lost our minds. The next thing we knew, she was fraudulently using our mailing address to enroll her kids into the neighborhood school.
Whenever I tell this story, someone always asks the following seemingly logical question: “Didn’t you have a lease?” The answer is yes, but it hardly seemed to matter. We tried threatening everything to remove the landlord — letters from our attorney, filing civil complaints with law enforcement, even calling the police to remove him physically. Nothing worked. After months of battling, we stopped paying the rent, hoping to get him to move out. In response, he had the audacity to file a motion…to evict us.
By the time New Jersey’s landlord-tenant court forced our landlord to vacate the bottom floor of the townhouse, we’d lost thousands of dollars and our faith in the legal system. My point is that even in Edgewater, New Jersey, where the median income is over $100,000, renting can be pure hell. But as awful as my landlord story is, it pales in comparison to the nightmare scenario facing millions of renters in the coming months.
On July 31st at midnight, the eviction moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expired, placing the country on the verge of a housing crisis not seen since a decade ago. I must admit I hesitated for several days before writing this note. Why? Because even after Congress left without extending the moratorium, I expected Democrats to sort this out over the weekend. For me, the idea that Democrats would hop on planes and take vacations while millions faced homelessness — and exposure to covid — was unfathomable.
I was wrong. Except for Representative Cori Bush and a few others in Congress, that’s what Democrats did. Democrats have known for months of the looming eviction crisis. After a weekend of finger-pointing, the Biden administration extended the moratorium for two months, something he previously claimed he had no authority to do. Unsurprisingly, a group petitioned a federal judge to invalidate the renter protections just two days later.
Even if Biden’s action stands, it’s only a brief delay for renters. To underscore the severity of the impending crisis, here are a few statistics from an Aspen Institute report, issued just days before the moratorium’s July expiration date:
“More than 15 million people live in households that are currently behind on their rental payments (7.4 million adults, 6.5 million households), which places them at legal risk of eviction. According to one estimate, these households collectively owe more than $20 billion to their landlords. On a per tenant basis, average debt owed to landlords exceeds $3,000, with significant variation based on time away from work, family needs, and other factors.”
The report goes on to predict the likely series of events once the CDC rent moratorium expires:
“When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium ends on July 31st, these renters may face eviction, civil lawsuits for unpaid rent, and aggressive debt collection — crises that will continue to cause harm years into the future. Nearly 50% of those who are behind on rent anticipate that they will be evicted in the next two months. The threat of eviction is particularly acute for renters of color. Currently, 22% of Black renters and 17% of Latinx renters are in debt to their landlords, compared to 15% overall and 11% of White renters. Rental debt is also challenging for renters with children, with 19% unable to make payments.”
Whenever I see the issue of rent moratoriums raised on social media, someone invariably chimes in with a “what about landlords?” take on the situation. So let’s game it out. Sure, landlords could begin eviction proceedings against every tenant in arrears without the moratorium, but that does little to help recover the thousands in past-due rent.
On Twitter the other day, I asked Diane Swonk, chief economist for Grant Thornton, her thoughts on the impact to the economy of the expiration of the eviction moratoriums. Here’s what she told me was her biggest concern:
“The failure to spend funds allocated has been catastrophic for renters and landlords. It is one of many reasons state & local spending [dropped] instead of [rose] in (second quarter) GDP. I fear rise of homelessness and hunger as Delta rages and stimulus fades.”
Swonk also pointed me to an article from Rachael Siegel and her colleagues at The Washington Post on the log jam of unallocated renter relief funds sitting in state coffers. The article points out that one problem is the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Just twelve percent of the $25 billion approved under the Trump administration has made it into the hands of eligible renters. Even less of the $21.5 billion earmarked for the program by the Biden administration has been spent. In Rhode Island, for example, only $100,000 was paid out to a half dozen households in May.
Democrats should move quickly to forestall the crisis facing both renters and landlords alike. Put the pressure on states to distribute the billions in funding already received from the government. They should also consider out-of-the-box solutions, like civil debt conversion, which converts housing debt into a traditional civil debt. This would let tenants repay landlords while avoiding the risk of eviction.
Democrats' lackadaisical attitude towards the landlord-tenant issue mirrors their lack of urgency in addressing the filibuster and voting rights. But with control of all three levers of Washington power, responsibility for what lies ahead is squarely at the feet of Democrats. Delaying the inevitable is not an option.
