Harvard Study Warns: Impending Wave of Evictions Looms as Expiration of the Moratorium
A wave of evictions is said to happen as the end of the national pandemic moratorium nears. Researchers said that a potential housing crisis looms across the country post-covid19 pandemic recovery.
More than 4 million Americans are said to lose their homes in the coming two months once the pandemic moratorium stops this month. Researchers and experts believe that a potential housing crisis looms across the country’s post-pandemic recovery. A large share of those facing evictions or foreclosure comes from low-income families or from people of color. Researchers from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies reported that this disproportionately large share would exacerbate or further aggravate the existing inequalities when it comes to housing.
And those who managed to weather the global health crisis induced downturn without losing much income are snapping up the limited supply of homes for sale and causing prices to peak at an almost all-time high. The report also said that the skyrocketing price of the supposed affordable housing or homeownership causes it to be out of reach for many Americans.
In the report, researchers wrote, “Even as the U.S. economy continues to recover, the inequalities amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic remain front and center.”
In a survey conducted between May 26 and June 7,about 4.2 million Americans fear that they are very likely or somewhat likely to face eviction or foreclosure in the next coming two months.
In a separate data that Harvard reported, about 17% of renter households were not able to make rent payments in the early months of this year. Aside from the income, racial disparities also persisted among renters who were reportedly behind their rents, with the Blacks composing the most at 29%, Hispanics coming in second at 21% and Asian renters at about 18%. White renters who were behind on their rent came in at 11%.
According to the reports submitted by the researchers, “With so many renters in financial distress, there are serious concerns about an impending wave of evictions”
They added “So far, substantial federal relief through stimulus payments, expanded unemployment benefits, and other funding, along with federal and state eviction moratoriums, have prevented large-scale displacement.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC has created a moratorium which would help millions of Americans from being pushed from their homes amid the Covid-19 Pandemic. The eviction moratorium is however nearing its end this June and many Americans fear that the number of evictions will spike. Moreover, a lot of states have slashed expanded pandemic unemployment benefits. A lot of economists say that this benefit is an ill-advised approach to persuade and push the American people to once again reenter the workforce.
The national Low Income Housing Coalition, a non-profit organization, have asked the Biden administration to “prevent a historic wave of evictions” this summer. To do this, they implored the present administration to extend the eviction ban and distribute rental assistance more efficiently.
With the pandemic still very much present in the country, the organization disputed that letting the moratorium to end before the vaccination rates increase in the marginalized communities could result to a swell in the number of covid-19 cases as well as the number of deaths caused by the virus.
A new research conducted by the Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, backed the argument of the on-profit group. It stated that neighborhoods with the highest eviction rates show that they have the lowest number of people that have been vaccinated.
The researchers at the Eviction Lab said that, “Our findings suggest that those most at risk of being evicted are still at high risk of contracting and passing the virus.“
Lastly, the reported conducted by Harvard explored into the housing market “bubble” which they fear will cause the price to rise sharply. Researchers said that the home sales are at their peak levels since the 2006. This rise was propelled in part by the young home buyers and the record-low interest rates. The researchers however downplayed fears of a bubble.
Researchers also noted that racial disparities remained very evident as national homeownership rates starts to go up. According to the report, the gap between the White and the Blacks was just over 28% during the first quarter of 2021. This gap is linked partially to the racial income gap as the median income of white households is $71,000 while Black households have a median income of $43,000, a 65% difference between the two households.
Also stated in the report is that about 2.3 million homeowners were in active forbearance in the first part of the year, and that those in these situations and circumstances were most likely people of colors and/or have little equity in their homes or property.
Eventually, researchers and housing advocates are urging policymakers not to neglect people who have been behind in their rents, people who are struggling financially and fail to make payments and those who have fallen further behind, during this global health crisis. Researchers are prodding them to aim for an equitable recovery as the country’s economy is beginning to come back.
Chris Herbert of the Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies said in a statement, “For those households with secure employment and good-quality housing, their homes provided a safe haven from the pandemic,” the managing director further added “But for millions struggling to cover the rent or mortgage, their housing situations have become increasingly insecure and these disparities are likely to persist even as the economy recovers, with many lower-income households slow to regain their financial footing.”