With numbers continuing to surge in relation to the coronavirus pandemic, a mix of tenants have streamed into courtrooms — in person and virtually — to detail how the virus has affected their lives.
As a result, many families, mostly low-income, who have endured evictions before, are now being forced to pass through overcrowded as well as dangerous shelter systems to keep a roof over their heads.
“It’s going to be a mess,” Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said in reference to a Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey. “I’ve never seen this many people poised to lose their housing in such a short period of time. This is a huge disaster that is beginning to unfold.”
Meanwhile, as Congress ponders extending the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits that expired July 31 for some 30 million people, experts predict the problem will only worsen in the coming weeks, particularly if landlords proceed with evictions of more than 12 million renters within the next month.