An Emerging Coronavirus Concern: Eviction

[Newest Reality]

I am already domestically challenged, but I know people who are very close to eviction if something is not done to help them. They are getting big cuts in hours and even facing layoffs and firings due to lack of demand.

This NEEDS to be addressed or we will have one crisis after another crisis, etc. The weakness of an impoverished, substance-based population, (around half of all Americans) is really going to stand out. If half the country says nothing about its actual weakness, then something is very wrong and the popular view about the economy is more illusory and manipulated than one might imagine. The Simulation of The Spectacle, is about to crack and the sound will resound loudly.

For low-wage workers and cities, the real health emergency could be homelessness. So officials are advancing new proposals to temporarily halt evictions.

Neil Hutchinson, a 52-year-old stagehand based in Oakland, usually has a busy spring: The Game Developer’s Conference comes to San Francisco in March, Google’s Cloud Next conference comes in April, and Facebook’s big F8 conference comes to San Jose in May. In between, he gets calls to come help with smaller shows and events. As the conferences got canceled or postponed one by one on account of coronavirus concerns, Hutchinson got increasingly worried about paying rent on his apartment. In-person concerts dried up, too. By the end of the season, he expects to lose $10,000 in income.

“If this goes on longer than June, the outlook is pretty bleak,” he said.

For many people like Hutchinson, the low-grade fear of getting the Covid-19 virus has been compounded with an urgent sense of economic anxiety. Under the states of emergency being declared in an increasing number of localities, large events have been canceled, public transit has been less crowded, bar and restaurant workers are losing out on tips and entertainers have had shows closed. In expensive coastal cities, where people can pay more than 30% of their income on housing, missing even one paycheck can mean falling behind on rent. And falling behind can mean getting evicted.

To protect low-wage workers from these ripple effects, two California cities, San Francisco and San Jose, are advancing legislation that would put a moratorium on evictions for people whose wages have been affected by coronavirus-related closures and work stoppages. Other city measures are geared at providing housing for those who are already homeless in the event of a virus outbreak. Already, Singapore and Italy instituted policies to prevent new homelessness during their coronavirus outbreaks.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/03/coronavirus-income-loss-paying-rent-eviction-housing-covid19/607426/

[pat_k]

1. At least the problem is getting attention: Another article from Seattle Times

I think a temporary ban on evictions here is likely, but that won't address all the people who are losing their cases by default because they are unable to get to the hearing -- or simply unwilling to brave the crowd and put themselves at risk.

As coronavirus slows Seattle’s economy, tenants, advocates and landlords raise concerns about evictions

On a normal Wednesday morning, renters facing eviction pack the Housing Justice Project’s small office inside the King County Courthouse, and spill out into the hall.

This Wednesday, however, the room was nearly empty. Since the novel coronavirus crisis began, fewer people have been turning up for their eviction hearings at the courthouse in downtown Seattle, and fewer have been seeking help with their cases, said Edmund Witter, the Project’s senior managing attorney.

Witter suspects some renters are staying home because public health officials have recommended people avoid crowded public spaces; about one third of the Project’s clients are at least 60 years old, he said. That worries the attorney, he said, because people who miss their hearings lose by default and are cleared by the court to be evicted.

My only hope is that we come out of this -- as a nation -- with a more acute understanding of how much we must rely on each other. I hope enough people recognize that the notion "we can't afford" universal health care and things like basic income is crap. We can't afford NOT TO. Where there is a will, there is a way. This could be the crisis that sparks the political will.

A girl can dream.