Eviction crisis looms as millions rely on federal moratorium expiring this month
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ABC NewsBy TREVOR AULT, MARJORIE MCAFEE, GABRIELLA ABDUL-HAKIM, SENI TIENABESO, and ANTHONY RIVAS, ABC News
(HARRISBURG, Penn.) — In the three years that Samantha Vernon lived in her rental apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she never thought sheβd be leaving because of an eviction.
The single mother of two who was forced out of her home last month is now living at her sisterβs place. Half of her belongings were left behind during the eviction. The other half is being held in a storage unit, packed in trash bags.
βI had to put it in trash bags because they wanted me out so fast,β she told βNightline.β I never would have thought this would happen to me — never.β
An essential worker, Vernon has been working with the United States Postal Service in Harrisburg for three years. But over the summer, as the coronavirus continued to spread across the U.S., she chose to go on 12-week family leave in hopes of avoiding exposing her daughters to the virus after a union representative reported multiple coworkers had become ill.
This meant sheβd only be getting paid two-thirds of her normal salary, though, and soon after taking the leave, she began to fall behind on rent payments. She thought sheβd be able to pay the money back.
Then, in September, her landlord sent her a complaint telling her that she owed roughly $2,000 in rent.
Vernon said she began paying off the money she owed immediately, sending $1,500 in rent owed throughout October. At a hearing in early October, a district judge ruled that Vernon could stay in her home so long as she was making payments.
But still, Vernon was evicted from her home on Nov. 5, when a Harrisburg marshal appeared at her door. She was only a few hundred dollars away from paying off the rent she owed.
βI said, βWell I have $900 now. β¦ I can go get a money order and give it to you guys. Can I stay?ββ Vernon said. βThey specifically told me, they did not want my money. β¦ I begged them. I said, βListen, I donβt have nowhere else to go.β They told me, βThatβs not our problem. You have to go.ββ
Vernon said she was given 15 minutes to leave. When she called the leasing office later that day, she said she had been told that if sheβd called them the day before to tell them she had the money, everything wouldβve been fine.
βI thought me giving them their money was communicating,β she said. βBut I guess that wasnβt enough for them.β
In a statement to ABC News, the complexβs management company said, in part, that it βcomplies with all state and federal landlord-tenant laws, and all orders and statutes enacted in response to COVID-19.β In Vernonβs case, it said that βa hearing was held in landlord-tenant courtβ and that βthe court ordered the eviction.β
Vernon is one of the thousands of Americans whoβve been evicted from their homes during the pandemic, and millions more are facing a similar fate come the end of the year: With nearly 10 million fewer jobs in the U.S. than there were in March, an estimated 6.7 million renter households — about 19 million people — are currently unable to pay their rent, according to the nonprofit National Low Income Housing Coalition.
βThe United States is facing the greatest eviction crisis we have ever seen in our countryβs history,β said Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law. βRenters are stretched threadbare. They are paying for rent with their food budgets. Thereβs been an increase in food pantry requests as much as 2,000% in some states.β
Despite a temporary federal eviction moratorium from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lasting until Dec. 31, in the last week of November, landlords throughout 27 cities filed 3,000 evictions.
The CDCβs emergency order may have been able to save Vernon from losing her home. The order supersedes state eviction rules and is meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through homelessness and overcrowded homes.
βWhen an eviction occurs, families end up doubling up, or theyβre transient. Theyβre surfing from couch to couch or staying with friends and family,β Benfer said. βAnd this increases their contact with others and it decreases their ability to comply with the CDCβs pandemic mitigation strategies, like self-quarantine and social distancing.β
Of the 44 states that implemented eviction moratoriums since March, 27 lifted them before September, resulting in an estimated 433,700 excess COVID-19 cases and 10,700 excess deaths, according to a recent study.
To qualify for the CDC protection, tenants must earn less than $99,000 a year as an individual — $198,000 for married couples — and they must also show that theyβve asked for governmental rental assistance, declare that the pandemic has created financial hardship and indicate that theyβd be homeless if theyβre evicted.
Vernon, who admitted to making mistakes, like missing a court hearing, found out about the CDCβs protection too late. Now that sheβs living with her sister, sheβs entered into the exact situation that the order was intended to prevent.
βMy 11-year-old, sheβs upset. She doesnβt have her room anymore. She doesnβt have space,β Vernon said. βShe likes to be alone right now. Sheβs at that age, and she canβt really do it right now.β
The eviction has also stained Vernonβs history as a tenant, making it difficult to pass a renter background check and find another home of her own. She says sheβs applied to rent about 12 apartments and all of the applications have been declined.
βThe application fees is about $50, $40, $30. So I spent over $200 on application fees and I got denied,β she said.
Caleb Cossick is a housing advocate with Greater Harrisburg Tenants United who tries to help people like Vernon before they enter the courthouse for their eviction hearings. He stands outside handing out print-outs of the CDCβs declaration and letting tenants know about the order, which landlords arenβt required to do.
Cossick says that in addition to not telling their tenants about the CDC moratorium, some are also finding loopholes to avoid it entirely.
βOne of the biggest issues is the clause that states it only covers cases of nonpayment of rent,β he said. βSo, landlords can say that the lease is expired, the lease is terminated, [that] there was some violation of the lease. They can claim fraud for any sort of thing, honestly, and when they do that, they can sue for possession.β
He also says that interpretation of the CDC order is left to judges to interpret, posing other challenges to tenants.
βIn a lot of cases, they side with the landlords almost across the board, and they donβt show a lot of sympathy. They donβt seem too interested in the idea of limiting the way eviction is processed due to COVID-19,β he said.
Each week, Cossick says the number of people seeking help rises and that the majority of his clients are single mothers of color. An ABC News analysis found that during the pandemic, the rate of evictions in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods has been twice that of mostly white neighborhoods, even as COVID-19 affects minorities disproportionately.
In Houston, Constable Alan Rosen is responsible for enforcing evictions around the city. He says itβs the βabsoluteβ worst part of his job and that seeing a family going through an eviction βbrings it so much further home.β
βI have children. I have a family. β¦ and if I could house them in my house, I would,β he said.
The wave of evictions has led Rosen to raise money to start an eviction clinic where those at risk of losing their homes can seek legal help. So many tenants, he says, never could have seen themselves facing eviction.
He says that landlords and tenants should be working together if the tenant has a history of paying on time.
βI canβt tell you how many landlords that the courts ask β¦ βHas this tenant ever not paid their rent in the whole time theyβve been living in your apartment complex,ββ he said. βAnd they said, βNo, theyβve always paid their rent on time and theyβve always been good tenants.β Work with them. Do everything you can to help that person. This is not somebody that doesnβt want to pay their rent.β
Melissa Flores is one such person seeking help for the first time. The single mother works as a housecleaner in Houston but has been unable to find work during the pandemic, making it difficult to pay her $920 per month rent.
βIβve never been in this situation ever before in my life,β she said. βIβve never had to come out to ask for help — never. Iβve always made it through everything. Struggled a little, but I made it.β
Rosenβs clinic helped Flores invoke the CDC order, thereby avoiding an eviction — for now, at least. The CDCβs order will expire on Dec. 31.
As tenants struggle to pay their rent, landlords are also facing financial hardships. Many still have a variety of expenses for the properties they own, including mortgage, property taxes, insurance and repairs, according to Catherine Burnett, associate dean for experiential education at South Texas College of Law.
βItβs a big problem, and itβs a problem that impacts the renters and the landlords as well,β Burnett said. βRight now, weβre helping the tenants with the CDC declaration but I think as a society we have to think, βWhatβs the impact on the mom and pop who have three or four rental properties, and thatβs how theyβre funding their retirement?β Theyβre people, too.β
Caleb Kruckenberg, a lawyer with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, is representing several landlords whoβve sued the government over the CDC order.
βThe CDC canβt go in and say, βWe have picked a winner and a loser and tenants donβt have to pay any more, and landlords have to provide free housing,ββ he said. βThe CDC just does not have that authority.β
The New Civil Liberties Alliance works to stop what it says is government overreach. With regard to the CDC order, Kruckenberg says the federal government is overreaching when it locks landlords out of their statesβ eviction processes and imposes fines on those that donβt comply.
βWe need to follow the rules that the Constitution set, and the CDC doesnβt get to make this very difficult decision about what to do with housing policy,β he said. βThe CDC is a public health organization. Theyβre not a housing policy organization. Theyβre not Congress. That is the structure that the Constitution envisioned and thatβs why this lawsuit is so important.
Kruckenberg said that once the CDC order ends in December, he expects there to be βa lot of action in housing courts across the countryβ as a wave of eviction lawsuits hits the system.
By January, there will be an estimated $34 billion in back-owed rent, according to the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
βThe likelihood of tenants being able to pay that back to a property owner without federal rent relief is very unlikely β¦ and this is one of the reasons why we need relief from Congress as quickly as possible,β Benfer said.
When the CDC order expires in the new year, Benfer said βmillions upon millions of individuals and children will face eviction. They will face the health harms that it causes, they will be threatened with COVID-19 contraction and death, perhaps, and they will also be hard-pressed to recover. Eviction is a jagged slide with no ladder back up, and this is something that our country will be recovering from for generations to come.β
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