As Millions Face Eviction and Starvation, Pentagon to Spend Nearly $2 Billion a Day on War
According to an analysis from Feeding America, food insecurity will hit 52 million people due to COVID-19 in the United States, which is an increase of 17 million people from pre-pandemic times. Supply line disruptions, lower levels of donations, and millions of unemployed people who’ve lost their jobs due to government-imposed lockdowns have created a massive strain on America’s food supply and more and more family’s are being pushed into a situation of food insecurity.
It’s not just the brink of starvation that millions of Americans face either. Thanks to government-mandated lockdowns, a record number of Americans are unable to find jobs as businesses are forced to close or have gone out of business permanently. This is creating a situation in which families are unable to pay their rent — leading to the potential for mass evictions.
In March the CARES Act imposed a federal moratorium on evictions, which mandated that it was illegal to evict tenants who participate in federal housing assistance programs or who live in properties with a federally backed mortgage loan due to the nonpayment of rent. When the CARES Act moratorium expired on July 24, a host of state and local governments passed their own eviction prevention measures—but these actions varied significantly across the country and left many renters vulnerable to eviction once again.
Then, on September 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued another moratorium on evictions through December 31, 2020. While this will certainly help those who rent — temporarily — all the moratorium did was pass the burden onto the landlord who may no longer be able to pay the mortgage on the property without the incoming rent.
And no, contrary to what many believe, most landlords are not mega rich property owners and live modest lifestyles.
In fact, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institute 40 percent of residential property units are owned by individual investor landlords. Among those owning residential investment property, roughly a third are from low- to moderate-income households; property income constitutes up to 20 percent of their total household income.
Now, without some sort of assistance for the burden placed on smaller landlords another massive crisis is unfolding. To understand why this crisis is unfolding it needs to be made clear that a moratorium doesn’t forgive rent payments, it only allows the renter to defer them. However, if a tenant cannot come up with monthly rent right now, the idea of paying back multiple months of compounded rent after the moratorium is over, will be all but impossible.
As Millions Face Eviction and Starvation, Pentagon to Spend Nearly $2 Billion a Day on War