XPost: sac.politics, alt.politics.republicans, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.economics, talk.politics.guns
From:
leroysoetoro@kaga.com
https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/07/05/eviction-crisis-looming- month/
When the pandemic first hit and emergency relief measures were being
passed in a flurry of political activity, it was obvious that a lot of
renters could find themselves in trouble pretty quickly. Lower-income
residents who tend to live paycheck to paycheck, particularly in the
cities where costs of living are higher, frequently found themselves out
of a job. With the rent coming due and unemployment systems being
overwhelmed leading to long delays in receiving benefits, it looked like
we might be facing an actual “eviction crisis.” But actions taken at the federal, state and municipal levels put all evictions on hold for up to
three months or more.
Now that period is drawing to a close. Texas was one of the first states
to end its eviction moratorium, though some cities kept municipal
executive orders along those lines in place. More states are about to
reach the end of the protection period. So did those temporary measures do
any good? NBC News reports that all we may have done is kick the can down
an increasingly short road.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act that
Congress passed in March provided a temporary moratorium on evictions, but
it was for a fraction of the nation’s tenants and some homeowners —
applying to those in federally subsidized housing or in housing with federally-backed mortgages. That is set to expire within the next month.
This has left courts and local governments in many places to create a
patchwork of policies and ever-changing guidance around evictions,
creating greater uncertainty and confusion amid the coronavirus pandemic.
At the height of the pandemic, 42 states and the District of Columbia had statewide moratoriums on evictions in place, covering millions of renters,
but presently, a little more than a dozen states have some kind of
eviction protections in place, Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake
Forest University, said.
Almost everyone seems to agree that something needs to be done, but there
is precious little agreement about what that “something” should look like. California Representative Maxine Waters has introduced a bill in the house
that would expand the federal moratorium on evictions and extend it until
March of next year. Nobody seems to think that bill has any legs, however,
and it’s expected to fail just as the so-called HEROES Act did in the
Senate.
Such an extension at the federal level does nothing more than once again
kick the can down the road while causing more and more damage in the
private sector. I discussed some of the complexities dogging this
situation when I wrote about the so-called “rent strikes” cropping up in
many cities and how they will come back to hurt renters, along with most
of the private sector.
Waters’ proposed extension might keep some renters in their apartments for
a full year, but unless they are already back to work and/or have managed
to secure long-term, enhanced unemployment benefits, they’re simply
running up a massive bill from their landlords that will come due when the moratorium expires. In the meantime, landlords (the majority of whom are private individuals or small businesses with only a few properties) are
losing ground on their own mortgages and facing the prospect of losing
their investments entirely. (And removing the renter’s housing unit from
the market in the process.)
It goes deeper than that. Property owners who are not receiving rent are
not paying municipal taxes for schools, infrastructure maintenance and everything else the state and local governments do. This reduces the availability of local services to those being affected by the pandemic and
the resultant economic downturn. It’s a vicious cycle.
But what do we do about it? Thus far the only “solution” being put forward seems to be heading out to the Rose Garden picking another trillion
dollars off of the magical money tree that clearly must be growing there.
If the federal government pays everyone’s rent so the landlords are paid
and are then able to pay their taxes, etc. then the cart continues to
rumble along. But paying the cost for the roughly 43 million rental units
in the United States today quickly adds up to a seriously large percentage
of our GDP. That system can’t continue for long before collapsing under
its own weight while further driving up our deficits and debt.
What’s the real, viable solution? Don’t look at me. I’m just glad I didn’t
run for high office anywhere because this is one problem I certainly
wouldn’t want to drop in my lap.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.
Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)