An estimated 30 million to 40 million people could be at risk of eviction in the next several months, according to a team of prominent housing experts in August.
The alarmling forecast came as federal, state, and local protections expire and millions of Americans remain out of work due to COVID-19 on top of a housing crisis that existed before the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 housing crisis has sharply increased the risk of foreclosure and bankruptcy, especially among small property owners; long-term harm to renter families and individuals; disruption of the affordable housing market; and destabilization of communities across the United States,” explain the housing leaders in a new report, which says the nation “may be facing the most severe housing crisis in its history.”
Communities of color are disproportionately rent burdened and at risk of eviction, and people of color are at most at risk of being evicted during the pandemic, according to the study.
These findings were developed by researchers from The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, City Life, the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, The Eviction Lab at Princeton University, the Innovation for Justice Program at the University of Arizona College of Law, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Low Income Housing Coalition, Stout, and Wake Forest University School of Law.
“Renters across the U.S. have run out of time,” says Zach Neumann, founder and executive director of the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project and researcher at The Aspen Institute. “Absent significant rent relief and a new eviction moratorium from Congress, the United States is going to face displacement and homelessness on a historic scale.”
The housing experts fear that evictions could escalate quickly across the country without interventions. They say the most comprehensive proposals include a nationwide moratorium on evictions and at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance.
For more, read "The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis An Estimated 30-40 Million People in America Are At Risk."
