Now that the US Supreme Court has blocked the CDC’s eviction moratorium, millions of renters across the United States are facing potential homelessness and financial ruin amidst the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.Combined with the recent termination of federal unemployment benefits, the ending of the moratorium marks a new period of vulnerability for many Americans who have struggled to pay rent and afford basic necessities during the pandemic.
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“It's not going to be explosive. It's going to be death by a thousand cuts," said Leonardo Vilchis, a volunteer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union.Financial analysts estimate that anywhere from several million to 40 million people may soon be forced out of their homes. With most state eviction moratoriums also expiring, advocates and health experts now fear an unprecedented wave of evictions that will drive up unhoused populations while creating conditions that increase the spread of COVID-19. “Evictions are happening in Rhode Island already, and we will only see them rise in the coming months now that the CDC eviction moratorium has ended,” Olivia Blush, a member of Tenant Network Rhode Island (TNRI), told Motherboard. Like in many other places, in-person eviction hearings have resumed in the state, she said, putting hundreds of low-income BIPOC Rhode Islanders disproprotionately at risk of losing shelter and contracting or spreading COVID-19. The CDC’s moratorium staved off an estimated 1.55 million eviction filings nationally, but many advocates like Blush saw it as inadequate. “We’re a year and a half into a global pandemic, and there has been no true, comprehensive eviction moratorium, neither here in RI nor on a national level,” said Blush. “Advocates, activists, and community members have been calling on our state government to institute a moratorium since March 2020, and have consistently received an inadequate response.” According to one study, one million people nationwide—disproportionately Black women—were still served eviction notices from March 15, 2020 to the end of the year.
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Out of necessity, many communities have been taking matters into their own hands by organizing eviction defenses. The work involves everything from physically blocking police and eviction marshals from entering a home to helping a family file rental relief paperwork, depending on a particular tenant’s requests and circumstances. “Their inability to act has shown us that we can't just wait for them to do the right thing,” said Blush. “We need to create a situation where they are forced to act; unfortunately, they currently see no reason to listen to us.”Eviction defense isn't a new concept—in fact, it grew as a strategy during a time when evictions weren’t as normalized. At the beginning of the Great Depression, a single eviction was considered so scandalous that it would draw a crowd of hundreds or thousands of resistors. Crowds fought police, took over empty buildings, returned furniture to evicted homes, raised relief payments and packed courts to pressure judges to stop evictions. The work was buoyed by Unemployed Councils, communist-led formations that mobilized around neighborhood grievances in most major cities. In March 1931 one reporter wrote that the Councils had “practically stopped evictions” in Detroit. Still, millions were evicted throughout the 1930s.By building collective power, today’s organizers and tenants similarly hope to minimize what the media has called a looming “tsunami” of evictions, both through direct action and by providing aid directly to those who are in danger of losing shelter. Despite New York’s statewide eviction moratorium extension, Brooklyn Eviction Defense (BED)—a leaderless, volunteer coalition helping tenants facing eviction, harassment, and housing insecurity—has been busy fielding calls from at-risk tenants. Motherboard asked Oliver Hinds of the BED, for insight into how people can prepare— and are already preparing—for the coming flood of eviction notices.
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As a group of tenant volunteers themselves, BED also asks tenants if they have the capacity to help take hotline shifts, or help with any other organizing work. Relationship building is a foundational component of tenant organizing. “[I]t’s important to build community power by connecting with your neighbors,” writes BED in its “We Keep Us Safe” zine series. “Solidarity with other tenants can be a vital source of support, especially for the most vulnerable renters. This solidarity can take many forms--keeping track of who is unable to pay rent, sharing information and pooling resources if someone has immediate needs, and educating each other about tenants rights and tenant power in NYC.” To this end, eviction defense groups can send out teams of door knockers to meet their neighbors, establish rapport and offer support. Rather than knock on every door in Brooklyn or Rhode Island, BED, TNRI and other groups often identify people most at-risk of being thrown out of their homes based on court proceedings. Because of modified court procedures due to pandemic, people don’t often know they are about to be evicted. BED gets around this by sending letters in the mail to at-risk tenants, and assembling teams of doo-knockers to alert tenants on the weekend prior to a scheduled eviction. Even with eviction moratoriums and other tenant protections, landlord harassment and illegal lockouts are always a risk. If a landlord wants to sell a building, sometimes they will lock tenants out of their homes, cut their electricity or water, or lock shared bathroom access. To prevent illegal harassment, eviction defense group members often sign up to take shifts as "stoop watchers," who physically show up to an at-risk tenant’s home, at their request). Stoop watchers put landlords on notice and monitor for signs of harassment, and can even call for larger mobilizations, if needed.
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