If Congress doesn’t act to renew and strengthen these programs now, it could unleash a catastrophic wave of evictions across the country that would send the unhoused population skyrocketing – further destroying our economy in the process.
The additional $600 dollars a week in federal unemployment benefits provided by the CARES Act, as well as the federal and numerous state level bans on evictions, have stabilized the incredibly precarious situation of many unemployed Americans.
Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, Texas and 12 other states have begun to process eviction cases, threatening to throw vulnerable tenants out of their homes during a pandemic that is still present, even spiking in areas, and still very much lethal.
We need to cut the red tape surrounding federal rental assistance to ensure that everyone who needs assistance receives it, provide legal assistance to those who are currently facing eviction hearings, and place a universal, nationwide federally backed eviction moratorium until the crisis subsidies, rather than a confusing patchwork of state and local level mandates.
If we allow hundreds of thousands of American families and communities to lose their homes, risk being exposed to a deadly disease and be unable to return to work, the ramifications will ripple into the next generation and forever be a stain on this country and its leadership.
