A banner against eviction of tenants who do not read jobs, no hair will be displayed in a controlled rental building in Washington, DC on August 9, 2020. (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT / AFP via Getty Images)
ERIC BARADAT | AFP | Getty Images
The executive action taken by President Donald Trump on Saturday gives tenants no worries about losing their homes in the midst of one of the worst public health crises in history, no extra security, experts say.
After negotiations on another incentive package only stalled in Congress last week, Trump gave a number of executive orders over the weekend on relief measures of his own. The action has already been called unconstitutional, and housing experts say what is billed as an eviction moratorium is really a few recommendations that actually do little, if anything, to keep tenants in their homes.
“It’s toothless at best,” said Peggy Bailey, vice president of housing policy at the Center for Budget Policies and Priorities. The memorandum directs only federal agencies to “consider” measures to prevent expulsions, Bailey said. The National Coalition for Low-Income Housing called the mission “Trump’s empty shell of a promise to tenants.”
“It gives the impression that something was done, when in fact nothing was done,” said John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Rights Council.
The president’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said the president “did what he could within his executive capacity”, to prevent housing evictions, in a briefing on Monday.
The CARES law was passed in March, banning evictions in properties with federal-backed mortgages and for tenants receiving government-backed housing. The City Institute estimates that the facility covered nearly 30% of the country’s leased units. However, that protection expired on July 24th.
Even with those clear rules about what landlords could not do, there were violations, Pollock said. One survey of 100 lawyers for legal aid and civil rights across the country at the end of June found that more than 90% of respondents had reported illegal evictions in their area.
Now, with Trump’s muscular guidance, evictions are likely to spike, Pollock said. “You need good policies and you need enforcement,” he said.
The statewide moratorium on evictions has now ended in most states as well, even as unemployment remains at historic highs and cases of the virus continue. Changing the situation is the fact that some 30 million Americans stopped receiving the weekly $ 600 federal unemployment benefits last month.
By one estimate, some 40 million Americans could be fired during the public health crisis, four times the amount seen during the Great Recession.
“The United States has had to deal with the worst housing crisis in history,” said Emily Benfer, visiting law professor at Wake Forest University.
Lawyers are worried that tenants will hear about Trump’s order and feel wronged about payments.
“By relying on shaky legal authority, this executive order offers only false hope, and risks increased confusion and chaos at a time when tenants need the guarantee that they will not be evicted from their homes during a pandemic,” Diane Yentel said. CEO of the National Coalition for Low-Income Housing.
Courtney Davis, whose shift at Waffle House in Macon, Georgia, was slated for April, feels hopeless. Her only income now is her weekly unemployment benefit of $ 158, which does not even cover the rent on her one-bedroom apartment.
“My biggest concern has been becoming homeless,” said Davis, 23, who is seven months pregnant. “I’m so ready to go back to work, but the pandemic is not slowing down.”
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