By Jerry Goldberg
In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, housing activists have shown tremendous initiative in raising demands for moratoriums on eviction and rental payments during the emergency and in the months to come. Organizations like the Right to the City Alliance, Moratorium Now Coalition, Detroit Eviction Defense, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and others have called for canceling rent, mortgage and utility payments during the emergency and in the months that follow after it is lifted.
24 states have suspended evictions for at least some time during the emergency. However, in most cases there has been no canceling of rent payments, meaning that when the moratorium is lifted millions will face imminent removals from their homes. Out of work and with no income coming in, 31% of renters failed to pay their April rent, and the numbers are certain to go up in coming months.
The Covid-19 crisis appears to be leading to a housing crisis every bit as large as the subprime mortgage crisis of approximately 2005-2013. This crisis will offer openings for housing activists to intervene boldly to assert that affordable housing is a human right that must be guaranteed for all. But to be effective, we must learn from the lessons of the subprime disaster. Today, much of the rental market is now controlled by the same kind of Wall Street institutions that brought on the collapse of the mortgage industry, and who will surely be in line for a massive bailout at the expense of renters and their families if we do not intervene….
Goldberg is a Co-Founder of the Moratorium Now Coalition in Detroit
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 