As unemployment benefits and federal support runs out, U.S. renters face a rising wave of evictions at a time when they have no savings to pay deposits on new places to live or rent if they move in.
More than a third of Americans rent their homes. The majority of renters are low-wage workers with little money saved. In fact, according to the Federal Reserve report, 40 percent cannot cover a $400 unexpected expense. Thus, out of work and having spent what the government may have given them in unemployment benefits, etc., most or all of which has been consumed during the economic lockdown.
While many states banned evictions since the lockdowns, now more than 20 other states will allow renters who can’t pay their rent to be thrown out.
What we had warned would happen as a result of governments draconian lock downs when they began in March, but was ignored by the media, is now finally being acknowledged by “experts.”
Without additional government support and intervention, “We will have an avalanche of evictions all across the country,” said Emily Benfer, a professor at Columbia Law School who monitors eviction law.
Nationally, about 90 percent of renters made their payments by late May, a rise in default of only about 2 percent from a year previous.
A May Census Bureau survey, however, found that 25 percent of respondents said they have little or no confidence they will be able to pay rent the next month.
Many renters already report paying their rent with credit card cash advances or by taking title loans on their cars.
A new $3-trillion federal aid bill, containing $100 billion in rental assistance, is likely to pass the U.S. House but not the Senate, where Republicans criticize the package as too expensive, pointing to already-generous federal unemployment benefits.
Those benefits end 31 July.
During 2016, when the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, the U.S. logged 3.7 million evictions. The unemployment rate now is calculated near 20 percent, foreshadowing as many as 14 million households being put out on the street in the weeks ahead.
TREND FORECAST: In December 2019, we named “Homeless and Helpless” as one of 2020’s Top Trends. The worst is yet to come. And, during the upcoming “Summer of Discontent,” we forecast riots, demonstrations, and violence to escalate to levels not seen in America since the 1968 protests.
