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Eviction notices for homeowners in South Carolina and other states will begin going out Aug. 24 in the wake of the federal housing moratorium that ended last month, leaving 40 percent or more of renter households in 29 states at risk.
In South Carolina alone, 52 percent of renter households that can’t pay their rent are at risk of eviction, according to an analysis of census data, chancing about 185,000 evictions that could be filed in the state over the next four months, NBC News reported.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, South Carolina was already grappling with the nation’s highest eviction rate, nearly twice that of any other state, according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
“A lot of the safety net things that people relied on are gone,” said John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, NBC reported. “And some of the things that they relied on, like credit cards and borrowing from family, those are not sustainable ways to pay rent. So as bad as the numbers have been up to now, it pales in comparison to what’s coming. If Congress does not act and provide substantial relief, we’re going to go over the cliff.”