Landlords Have Filed More Than 150,000 Eviction Notices Already. By January It Will Get Much Worse – By Sarah Kleiner (Mother Jones) / Dec 9 2020
“This is a very dangerous moment in terms of the welfare of the American people.”
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This piece was originally published by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Update: Dec. 9, 2:15 p.m.: The Center for Public Integrity has received a copy of the framework of the Emergency COVID Relief Act of 2020, which a bipartisan group of senators is drafting. The plan calls for extending an eviction moratorium through Jan. 31; the current moratorium ends Dec. 31. The framework also calls for providing $25 billion in rental assistance, though it is unlikely the money would reach renters by Jan. 31.
A nationwide ban on evictions is the only thing standing between millions of jobless Americans and homelessness—and it’s set to expire Dec. 31, weeks before President-Elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office.
Donald Trump’s administration could extend the moratorium on evictions in his final days in office, the lame duck Congress could pass a bill that temporarily halts evictions, or Biden could issue a new ban after he is sworn in on Jan. 20.
But for millions of Americans who collectively may be as much as $24 billion behind in rent payments to their landlords by January, the ban is only a temporary fix for an impending economic calamity.
