It’s estimated that upwards of 23 million people could be evicted. Istock photo by Bill Oxford
The clock is ticking for Americans who are struggling to pay rent amid the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $600-a-week enhanced unemployment benefits created in Congress’s CARES Act runs out on July 31. The federal eviction moratorium—which protected about one quarter of American renters—expired July 24. Many of the patchwork state and local eviction moratoriums have already ended, with more expiration dates on the horizon for others. The U.S. Census Bureau’s weekly survey of American households recently found that 26.4 percent of Americans have either already missed a rent or mortgage payment or have little to no confidence that they will be able to pay their next month’s rent on time.
House Democrats moved to extend eviction protections and provide rental assistance when they passed a second, $3 trillion emergency relief package called the HEROES Act in May. But to date, Senate Republicans have not reciprocated.
With tens of millions of Americans out of work and facing their August rent bill without any support from the federal government, advocates are sounding the alarm about a looming mass eviction crisis.
In June, researchers from the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project calculated that between 19 million and 23 million renters are at risk of eviction by the end of September, barring significant new intervention by the U.S. government. [Editor’s Note: A report released Aug. 7 estimated 30 to 40 million people could be evicted by the end of the year.]
That would be eviction on a historic scale. In 2016, for example, there were about 3.7 million eviction filings, according to the most recent data from researchers at Princeton University’s Eviction Lab (and likely just as many illegal or informal evictions on top of that). While every renter among those tens of millions evicted in the coming months wouldn’t end up homeless, many millions would be pushed to the street, forced to seek help in already-strained affordable housing, homelessness, and health care systems.
It is hard to imagine the impact of millions of Americans falling into homelessness during a deadly pandemic. It is a crisis that feels like something out of a disaster movie. But the more than 140,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far have shown us that real disaster can strike, especially when crisis is met with inadequate response by those in charge.
So what will happen if the worst comes to pass and upward of 23 million American renters are evicted from their homes? Shelterforce spoke with researchers, advocates, lawyers, housing economists, and rental housing industry representatives to understand what that crisis would do to evicted individuals and their families, and to shelter systems, public health, and the rental housing market.
The Spiraling Impact of Eviction
“I’m looking at this data and watching the United States careen towards the edge of this cliff and there are no guardrails,” says Emily Benfer, a Wake Forest University law professor and co-author of Eviction Lab’s COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard. “We cannot stand by as millions of households are about to enter this state of complete devastation. It will take generations to recover from.”
Evictions are terrible for those who suffer through them, and not just because people are forced out of their homes with potentially nowhere to go. Evictions come with a whole host of negative implications for long-term health and well-being.
“It’s a downward slope to housing instability, homelessness, [and] high health care expenditures. For children especially it leads to lifelong poor health outcomes,” says Benfer.
Housing instability and homelessness lead to higher rates of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicide. A New York University study found evictions lead to higher utilization of emergency room services. Because an eviction stays on your record and can make it harder to find new rental housing, people often end up moving to neighborhoods with higher poverty rates after their eviction. That in turn can contribute to physical health problems such as respiratory disease and other chronic illnesses.
For children, eviction can be emotionally scarring. A 2013 study by sociologist and Eviction Lab founder Matthew Desmond found that children who’ve been evicted often perform worse in school and can develop chronic health problems.
The impacts of eviction are not felt evenly. Black and Latino renters are evicted disproportionately compared to white renters. Families with children are evicted at higher rates than people without children. Poor women of color are at the highest risk of eviction in the U.S.
The cascading effects of eviction often leads to homelessness. National data on how often homelessness is caused by eviction is hard to come by. But research on local and regional evictions and surveys of those evicted give a sense of the problem. A 2018 report by the Seattle Women’s Commission and the King County Bar Association found that of the evicted renters surveyed: 37.5 percent ended up living on the streets, 25 percent moved into shelter or transitional housing, and 25 percent moved in with family or friends. A 2018 report from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty cites research that found 12 percent of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers blame eviction for their homelessness, 14 percent of homeless residents in Santa Cruz, California, blame eviction, and 12 percent of homeless residents in San Francisco say eviction is the primary cause.
Even if just 12 percent of the 23 million people at risk of eviction end up experiencing unsheltered homelessness, it would mean 2.76 million living on the street. That of course doesn’t capture the millions more who would live with family or friends, in motels, or in other unstable housing. That’s more than 10 times the 211,292 unsheltered homeless people the Department of Housing and Urban Development found in the entire U.S. in its 2019 Point in Time count. In total, HUD counted more than 567,000 homeless U.S. residents in 2019, including those living in shelters and other nonpermanent housing.
The affordable housing and shelter systems were already beyond capacity before COVID-19 struck. The pandemic has pushed them closer to the brink as congregate shelters attempt to socially distance and housing providers continue to try and find homes for people amid the crisis.
“Any surge of people who don’t have a place to stay cannot be contained in the existing homeless system,” says Urban Institute researcher Samantha Batko. “People would be forced into vehicles and tents or the homeless system would have to find massive resources for more hotels.”
In the middle of a pandemic with an easily communicable virus, street homelessness is particularly dangerous because of the difficulty of social distancing and lack of hygiene access. Even for those who stay off the street by doubling up with family members or friends, social distancing is more difficult and the consequences of getting sick are amplified.
Perversely, an eviction crisis could actually have upsides for people already in the homeless and affordable housing systems. “The landlords evicting people are going to fill those units,” Batko says.
She argues that the crisis makes vouchers more appealing to landlords who opposed renting to voucher holders in the past. Batko says she heard anecdotes from service providers who’d found greater success finding housing for renters with vouchers in the early days of the pandemic than they had previously. “In March and April, landlords that previously didn’t want to take vouchers or other rental assistance all of a sudden were open to it because it was a guarantee for rent,” she explains.
Whether every landlord is able to hang on to their property through an eviction crisis remains an open question, however. Mom and pop landlords who manage a few units are particularly vulnerable when it comes to weathering a lack of rental income. Those can often be the landlords more willing to rent at below-market rates who create the unsubsidized affordable housing market.
“The worst-case scenario [of evictions] is ruinous,” says Paula Cino, National Multifamily Housing Council’s vice president of construction, development, and land use policy. “No question there’s tremendous vulnerability in [the mom and pop landlord] segment in particular. But it’s difficult to identify by size which landlord could face distress. I think all parts of industry are going to face distress.”
Matthew Gardner, Windermere Real Estate’s chief economist is confident the big, corporate rental housing players will be just fine. The smaller landlords are at a much greater risk, but even there, Gardner thinks the mortgage forbearance program created by the CARES Act is going a long way toward helping homeowners avoid foreclosure. With forbearance, homeowners were able to delay mortgage payments for three months. Those who can prove COVID-related financial hardship can apply for another 12 months of reprieve.
It is in large part because of the forbearance program that Gardner does not think we’re heading for a repeat of the 2008 foreclosure crisis. “Everyone asks me if I’m worried about ownership housing,” he says. “No, I am worried about renters. … Anyone expecting a huge fall-out of foreclosures. I just don’t see it.”
Given the spike in unemployment and threat of lost homes, the Great Recession seems the obvious comparison to the moment we’re living through. But today’s crisis has already surpassed the fallout from the foreclosure crisis in some ways and still has the potential to be far more devastating.
Unemployment during the Great Recession peaked at 10 percent. Nearly 10 million people lost their homes to foreclosure between 2006 and 2014. But homelessness remained nearly flat between 2009 and 2011. The reason is, in part, that President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included $1.5 billion for local communities to keep people housed or rapidly fund new rentals for those who lost their homes.
The Great Depression is a more apt analogy for the crisis America now faces. It was then when unemployment hit 25 percent. There was no annual accounting of homelessness in the 1930s, but an article in the Journal of Urban History cites a three-day census taken by the Roosevelt administration in 1933 that found 1.5 million Americans were homeless. Many of those 1.5 million lived in the hundreds of Hoovervilles that dotted the country—the makeshift shanty towns named as a dark acknowledgment of President Herbert Hoover’s failure to intervene in the crisis.
It’s Not Too Late
Though an unprecedented eviction crisis looms on the horizon, it is not a foregone conclusion.
“It’s really, really not too late,” says Zach Neumann, head of the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project and co-author of the Aspen Institute eviction report. “If Congress is able to extend federally enhanced unemployment benefits or get money in the hands of tenants, they will be able to pay their rent, they will be able to stabilize themselves through the late summer and fall, and we can avoid a really significant chunk of the crisis we’re outlining in the report.”
Advocates have been lobbying the Senate for months to take up the House’s HEROES Act and provide a massive relief package to keep renters housed, expand temporary, emergency housing capacity, and more. The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is calling for at least $100 billion in rent relief funding, which has garnered broad support among affordable housing advocates and landlord groups like the National Multifamily Housing Council. NLIHC is also asking the Senate to include a uniform national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures and at least $11.5 billion to address existing homelessness.
One hundred billion is an eye-popping figure. But inaction isn’t a cost-saving measure. The University of Arizona law school’s Innovation for Justice program created a cost of eviction calculator that models how much it costs a community in increased emergency shelter, inpatient and emergency medical care, child welfare services, and juvenile delinquency for each person evicted. For the worst-case scenario of 23 million evictions, it calculates a nationwide, one-year cost of $128.7 billion. Innovation for Justice Program Manager Mackenzie Pish says the model doesn’t include the costs of increased mental health services or policing, so their calculation is likely on the low side.
“Homelessness is not natural,” says Eviction Lab’s Alieza Durana. “It is a choice we are making as a society and we can choose differently. We are a wealthy nation, we have the ability to support people in our community especially when they fall on hard times.
In the months since the House passed the HEROES Act, states and cities have continued piecing together or extending their own moratoriums, along with rent relief programs paid for by philanthropic dollars, CARES Act funding, and even state and local general funds. But those local and state programs have not been able to keep up with demand. “Only the federal government has the resources to provide rental assistance at the scale it is needed,” says Andrew Aurand, NLIHC’s vice president for research.
More than two months after the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, the Senate is finally taking action on a second relief bill. Their $1 trillion proposal is reported to include another round of $1,200 stimulus checks and a reduction in the size of the weekly enhanced unemployment payments. According to NLIHC, it is still “possible, but unlikely” that Republicans will include rent relief in their package. In an emailed statement, NLIHC writes “That’s why we’re working with all of our state and local members to urge their representatives and senators to prioritize emergency rental assistance and other resources and protections. … Each day that Congress waits to enact emergency rental assistance puts more people with the lowest incomes at risk of evictions and homelessness.”
If Republicans refuse to make the sort of deep investments affordable housing, homeless, and rental industry advocates are calling for, the only question that remains is whether America’s newly homeless will call their encampments Trumptowns or McConnellvilles.
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Government mandates that prevent evictions create more problems than they solve. Let the marketplace determine the price of rentals and the suffering of millions of Americans will be less than if evictions are prevented.
There are many possible outcomes if the threat of evictions is permitted that do not involve people living in the street. Simply the threat of eviction of millions of tenants may cause landlords to reduce their rents to avoid having their units empty. As a result, current tenants unable to pay their rents may benefit by lower rents, possibly enabling them to remain where they are and avoid the need to pay missed rent payments in the future. This benefit would also be offered to most tenants, even those with the ability to pay, to minimize the chance of them leaving. That means that millions more would benefit from lower rents if evictions were permitted.
For many individuals, it may be possible to move in with family, friends, or other people who may also be interested in sharing the cost of renting. The combining of households further reduces the demand for existing rental units. This would result in still lower rents. This may require rules that limit the number of people able to occupy a unit to be revised to enable increased occupancy rates.
People who were unable to afford rent prior to the pandemic may now be able to afford to rent because renting is more affordable than before: this will result in a version of musical chairs, except that no chairs will be removed each time the music stops. Some tenants will vacate a rental unit and be replaced by tenants who may have previously been unable to afford the unit. The point is, the number of people renting would likely remain fairly constant. The primary difference is that rates would overall be lower than before.
Of greater concern is to force renters to remain in their rental units because of leases that obligate them to stay in a unit that is no longer affordable. Ironically, preventing evictions creates a scenario where rents remain high despite many people’s inability to pay. If people were able to easily leave their current units without an economic penalty, they may be able to find another solution that better meets their current financial situation.
Landlords may be characterized as villains by some and thought to be able to withstand not being paid the rent they are owed. However, they provide a valuable service to the community and may stand to lose more than tenants. If rents are not paid, landlords would be unable to pay their mortgages and the other expenses of operating the rental unit and may need to default on their loans. In the future, landlords will not want to invest in real estate due to fear that their income from rental units will effectively be confiscated by government action. This will reduce the supply of future rental units. That results in long term consequences that hurt both tenants and landlords.
Prospects of modern-day versions of Hoovervilles are not as likely as they were in the past. Unemployment checks and other stimulus programs ensure that most families have at least some income. Therefore, most people could afford to pay reduced rent. With increased vacancies, this would be likely to occur.
Far from helping the situation, the government insistence that people remain in their current units causes rents to remain high. For the vast majority of present and future tenants and landlords, it is a disservice.
Key observation by Ken:
” In the future, landlords will not want to invest in real estate due to fear that their income from rental units will effectively be confiscated by government action. This will reduce the supply of future rental units. That results in long term consequences that hurt both tenants and landlords.”
And what particular type of housing will landlords NOT want to invest in? Low-income housing of course because that is where the moratorium on rents is effectively a cancellation of rents. For years before the coronavirus hit the annual amount of unpaid rent due to 12-14,000 evictions per year in my county of Milwaukee, Wis. was at least $10 million. But not just landlords suffered this loss. Consistently, tenants in low income neighborhoods pay more in rent as a measure of what their building is worth because landlords have to factor in rent losses due to eviction (and the property damage which sometimes accompanies an eviction).
In his book EVICTED Matthew Desmond never told the story of how “Sherrena” lost all 18 of her properties after she brought over 70 evictions. I researched this — which you can find in the top-rated review of EVICTED on Amazon.
shut up they don’t care about us or the Republicans or the Democrats or the president…if they care they would help is …
During the crisis, millions of people have been receiving unemployment AND the extra supplement of $600.00 a week from the Feds. Numerous reports state that most of the people ending up making MORE then when they were working. What happened to all this money? People SHOULD have been continuing to pay their rent, catch up on back rent and save for future rent. I’m sure many people have done that, for those that didn’t, their current situation is on them and not the responsibility of their landlord or the government.
I agree with another poster, lots of landlords are going to go above and beyond to keep their good tenants rather then have empty units sitting around. I believe the media and “advocate” groups are hyping this “eviction crisis” for their own agendas.
Landlords need to accept the fact that not all investments pay off– All investments involve risk because this assumption of risk is a major reason for their return in the first place. I’m often amazed at the arrogance of rental property owners that because they have paid for the building of housing that they are automatically owed a guaranteed profit.
Another approach is for our government to get rid of the extreme prejudice of drug phobia that convicted drug users should be denied public housing. — Although in a perfect world, it would be best if no one ever used drugs, this presumption is extremely unrealistic– If I had to live in poverty, with little chance of employment, housing or even much happiness in life, I would probably feel like using drugs to alleviate the stress of daily life myself! If our government and our economy can afford to lock millions in steel bar cages merely for taking a pill to make our lives more bearable, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, then we can surely afford to offer people a clean room, some food, and a chance to live a life of some happiness.
Finally, instead of throwing people out into the streets for a situation of disease and recession over which they have no control, housing them in school gyms and classrooms, with showers, bathrooms and cafeterias, would seem to be a very reasonable alternative, especially while schools are closed during the pandemic anyway. Churches, municipal buildings, police stations and courthouses are other viable options for emergency housing.
I think we all need to pray and work together as Americans and Christians to meet our mutual challenges and needs — After all, this present crisis is no worse than any of the many others we have faced, and managed, in our long and honourable history.
James Hamilton, M.D.
You have made the most myopic post on this website. No landlord feels they
should be guaranteed a profit – but this a a mandated interference in
free-market forces imposed by government which is too inept to solve the
problem properly – PAY THE RENT FOR TENANTS WHO CANT PAY DUE TO
THE VIRUS – why are landlords bearing the burden of government agencies
who cant agree on or appropriate relief funds in a timely fashion. This is
no different than government expecting grocery stores to allow those who
can’t pay for food to simply go grocery shopping but pay for the food months
later. Pretty unreasonable but thats the burden being placed on landlords.
We have 60 days! 2 disabled roommates were put on notice today . The house we’ve rented 10 years goes on the market tomorrow and not only were we not offered to purchase it , we paid every di.e of our rent…. On a fixed income trying to survive at age 62! Apartment rent exceeds our income. Help its a pandemic and winter . Where do we go from here? No houses to rent without buying not enough money to purchase. Why is this happening ? WTH!
I read all this hoping to find information to give me hope cause I face eviction in just a few hours due to unnatural circumstances and hard hearted landlord with prejudice against my girlfriend whom I live with …..well soon better to say did .I found no edification in these reports that would provide me some sort of hope for all of us ,(family of four)….instead statics and cold hard reality that it’s cold ,,raining ,and soon .
We will all be standing outside giving to the elements.we talking eviction of women with kids just over few hundred dollars and landlord refuses payment
We were told take the money we have that was other half of rent he denied,refuses to take!!!then he proceeded to forward with notice to eviction.he has let it be known he has personal dislike toward this woman with two kids,so forget any morals,or any empathy for needs of children.
His dislike is strong enough to blind him
To think and give consideration to the
Horror that is to become their fate
Because we will be homeless with no family or help or place to go…no clue
Can anybody give direction on “what to do” or where to go ,if, a family ends up on the street!!God have mercy on that man,may he in time have a change of heart how he views and lives.Because now it’s Stony.
And God have mercy on us ,this family of four ,for our infirmities ,is that we are poor ,not only economic,also educational,now poor and low in spirit.
It’s too much to overcome, I fear.
And,I have no idea what we to do.
I need a miracle!..I am grieved to know others just as us will have to endure such …I wouldn’t wish this on my worst of enemy.!!!!So,here’s proof of what’s to come ,starting here.starting now
I don’t feel right asking God for help.
Cause,we , Americans,have forsaken God….Now, in troubles the nation will soon be moaning for help.God help us,God help us!!!If America be so rich and resourceful…..then why it’s resident
being put to the streets?
Those in power,I fear are” fumbling the ball” even if only one American family is put to the streets and it soon may be thousands!!!feels like the beginning of the end,so to speak.
4hrs to eviction.
4hrs to eviction.Im one of the possible
23 million residents.
Little fyi…for the public!!!