Eviction requests are already on the rise.

Here is some bad news plus even more bad news about how America’s tenants fare as the coronavirus crisis progresses.

In a new report released Friday, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank investigators found that, after falling abruptly at the start of our near-complete national closure, the pace of eviction requests has returned to normal. in cities and counties where they have not been temporarily banned. The employer suggests that while landlords may have been willing to reach agreements with their tenants early in the quarantine, go back to business as usual in parts of the country where they are allowed to kick people out for losing rent. (The team analyzed data from 44 different locations across the country.)

In cities and counties that did pause pause pause evictions but then lifted protections, requests are also increasing.

This is troubling for the obvious reason that losing your home will make it harder for people to stay safe and avoid contracting the plague that has been happening. (In addition to all the other reasons why evictions are troubling!) The only silver lining here is that, even in states without prohibitions, evictions are not actually higher than in a normal year, other evidence that the Washington’s response to this pandemic has done a pretty decent job of keeping households financially safe, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, the $ 600 per week unemployment benefits created by Congress are currently on track to expire at the end of the month, and even if lawmakers decide to renew them at slightly lower levels, as seems likely, people will take a financial hit. Also, it could take weeks to reprogram state unemployment insurance systems to start delivering new payments, meaning families may have a harder time paying rent in the meantime.

Bottom line: Landlords are not reducing any particular slack to their tenants right now, and many Americans are likely to be poorer in August than in July. Cities and states would probably be wise to maintain protections for tenants, lest they exacerbate a public health crisis with a housing crisis.