Stop evictions.
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Support ACT UP Philadelphia, or, a local organization fighting the eviction of renters and homeless encampments.
Follow and support TANC or a local organization organizing tenants.
Find a tenants union or other local organization to volunteer for eviction defense.
GET EDUCATED
By Andrew Lee (he/him)
Just over a week ago, the Department of Justice defended a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium on evictions (MSN), extending eviction bans instituted by both the CARES Act and the CDC last year (Congressional Research Service). Despite DoJ support, this latest moratorium is contested by a lawsuit from a group of landlords. Even if the courts rule in its favor, it’s more limited than its predecessors, only protecting tenants in areas with “substantial” levels of COVID transmission (CDC). Landlords have filed for almost half a million evictions during the pandemic (Eviction Lab), and 15 million households are late on rent, owing a collective $20 billion to landlords, are potentially at risk of being put out on the streets. These tenants are disproportionately BIPOC (Colorlines) and LGBTQ+ (Injustice Watch).
Given this problem’s immense scope, it’s tempting to adopt a wait-and-see approach. But as millions face houselessness, we need to come together — not only because the courts might rule against the moratorium but also because landlords find ways to push tenants out even when it’s illegal.
“Renegade landlords” around the country persisted in driving out tenants unable to pay rent during COVID. In Oakland, one landlord changed the locks on the Castillo-Gutierréz family’s home and tore down the property’s fence flanked by unknown men on motorcycles (KQED). Since the moratoriums only prohibit eviction for non-payment of rent, some landlords tried to “skirt the law” by issuing eviction orders citing years-old non-financial issues (Inlander). After Missouri’s Tasha Tavenner was laid off, two men attempted to rip the door of her home, leading her and her four children to camp in the woods for five weeks. A renter in Ohio had the locks illegally changed on her house and the city trash bins so that accumulating garbage would force her to “voluntarily” leave (USA Today).
“There has been quite a bit of retaliation,” said Paige of the Bay Area’s Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) when speaking with Anti-Racism Daily. In one case, a landlord repeatedly refused to fix a home’s electrical problems until they ignited a fire. “People have been having to live without a fridge or a stove because the landlord is like, if you aren’t going to pay rent I’m not going to fix anything. I haven’t seen a whole lot of consequences even though this is illegal,” they said, adding that “BIPOC are the most affected by landlord harassment.”
“Once the moratorium ends, there’s going to be a massive crisis for non-payment of rent unless we forgive all that rental debt… Evictions have been happening since the beginning of the pandemic,” Max from ACT UP Philadelphia told Anti-Racism Daily. Those already evicted from their homes face evictions from shelters for minor infractions, as well as police violently breaking up homeless encampments. “The CDC said, do not evict homeless encampments during a pandemic. The city ignored that… They evicted a bunch of people who were staying safely outdoors, put them into indoor shelters, and an outbreak started a week after that. We’re pretty sure that the outbreak that killed someone was caused by that encampment eviction.”
Countless articles lament the plight of landlords unable to collect passive income but likewise unable to throw their tenants out on the curb (CNN). One op-ed claimed that canceling rent was anti-feminist because women landlords exist (Buffalo News). But a majority of rental units are owned not by small “mom-and-pop” operations but instead by large “institutional investors” (Harvard). There’s an immense difference between losing profit and being forced to move into the family car or under a bridge. The latter, incommensurably worse possibility is the one disproportionately facing LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people.
We can’t solely depend on continued moratorium extensions. Even with the moratorium in place, rogue landlords persisted in strong-arming and terrorizing tenants out of their homes. What we can do is support community organizations on the frontlines organizing to keep us all sheltered through and beyond the pandemic.
TANC is training renters across the San Francisco Bay Area as organizers to stay in their homes and “get through this crisis, alive, together” (The Appeal). ACT UP Philly is facing down police brutality (CBS) to “demand more plentiful permanent housing for Philadelphians facing homelessness, many of whom are Black and Brown and LGBTQ+” (Philadelphia Gay News).
“It’s a collective fight against gentrification and displacement across the country,” said Paige from TANC. “Try to find a tenant union, a tenant advocacy group, and see if they’re doing eviction defenses when the sheriff arrives to evict people, to document it and show solidarity. In your own living situation, don’t let your landlord walk all over you.”
To advance racial justice and keep all of our communities housed, it’s more important than ever to support organizations building tenant power with or without the moratorium.
Key Takeaways
A lawsuit threatens a new moratorium on evictions.
Even under existing eviction bans, tenants were illegally evicted by landlords and legally evicted from shelters and homeless encampments.
Tenant organizations are addressing a problem disproportionately affecting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people.