As the first of the month approaches, many renters will come up short on rent as a result of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic has put as many as 40 million people at risk of eviction by the end of the year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A federal ban on evictions from public housing ended in July, and many state and local protections for all renters are expiring soon.

In Marion, Ohio, a place with no special protections against eviction, Jacque Sayre went on unemployment in March after she was laid off from her job at a hotel when the pandemic hit. Without the additional $600 in federal assistance “keeping everything alive,” she says she now receives $219 per week in unemployment benefits — which isn’t enough to pay her $675 a month rent, car payment, insurance and electric bill.

“One month I try to pay my rent, one month I try to make my car payment,” she says....

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs today led his colleagues in demanding the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigate whether Secretary Ben Carson of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), violated the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act limits the use of federal resources for certain political activities of federal employees. The lawmakers made clear that HUD’s decision to distribute Secretary Carson’s opinion piece entitled, “We’ll Protect America’s Suburbs” through official channels could be a violation of the Hatch Act. They urged the OSC to investigate the matter and if a violation is found to enforce the law.

“It appears as though Secretary Carson, may have knowingly violated the Hatch Act on August 16, 2020, by both publishing and sending a political message using government resources and employees,” wrote the lawmakers. 

The letter was also signed by...

A year and a half ago, Jhon Loaiza and his wife, Sugey Bedoya, moved with their three daughters — now 12, 5 and 3 — from a two-bedroom apartment in New York City to a compact brick ranch house in San Antonio. They loved that house — its fenced-in backyard and four whole bedrooms, each with soft tan carpet — and their new city. They would walk by the river with ice cream or ride bikes after Sunday church. At night, Mr. Loaiza would put on salsa or reggaeton, twirling his girls around the living room and laughing. His broad smile forced his dimples to crease in.

That was in the before time — before Mr. Loaiza lost his income because of business closures, before he and his family left their home because they were threatened with eviction and before he contracted Covid-19 likely as a result of that move.

Forty-five, with a trim athlete’s body, Mr. Loaiza worked as a physical trainer for the San Antonio Athenians, a semipro women’s soccer team. During the off-season, he...

Pine Tree Legal, a group that defends low-income tenants statewide, has recruited 10 volunteer lawyers to help renters navigate the evictions process in a “chaotic” court system turned upside down by the pandemic. As eviction cases rise across the state, the nonprofit aims to double its number of legal volunteers in the coming weeks to help avert a crisis of Mainers displaced from their homes.

“The stakes feel higher for our clients,” said Katy Childs, a lawyer with Pine Tree Legal. “Tenants are facing the possibility that they may have to leave their home with their family and everything that that entails.”

One night last week instead of sleeping Florence Hobbs hopped around her apartment on a broken ankle, trying to pack everything she owned as fast as was possible. Her landlord had given her a 24-hour eviction notice and she didn’t want her things tossed out of the apartment in Charleston, South Carolina, when the clock ran out.

The 51-year-old hadn’t been able to pay rent since April, when her job as a caregiver ended with the death of her patient. She then had surgery, caught Covid-19 and broke her ankle while working at a new job. Friends helped her clear the apartment and are giving her a place to stay, but she is at a loss for what she is supposed to do next.

“There’s nothing being done to help my situation. I’m just in a dark place right now,” said Hobbs.

Housing advocates have warned of a looming eviction crisis after federal programs to help the 30 million unemployed Americans and to prevent evictions during the pandemic expired...

They’ve made it with government checks and family help. They’ve made it with savings and odd jobs. They’ve made it with church charity, nonprofit rescue funds, GoFundMe campaigns. One way or another, through five months of economic dislocation, the nation’s tenants have for the most part made their rent.

Now the question is how much longer these patchwork maneuvers will work — and what will happen to the economy if they suddenly don’t.

Almost from the moment the coronavirus upended the economy in March, there has been a persistent fear that the loss of wages and employment, concentrated among lower-income service workers, would lead to widespread evictions. According to one study, as many as 40 million people in 17 million households risk eviction by the end of the year — an astounding figure.

Yet interviews with dozens of landlords across the country returned comments like “no difference,” “pleasantly surprised” and “seems like normal.” That view is...

RICHMOND, Va. — On a hot summer’s day, the neighborhood of Gilpin quickly becomes one of the most sweltering parts of Richmond.

There are few trees along the sidewalks to shield people from the sun’s relentless glare. More than 2,000 residents, mostly Black, live in low-income public housing that lacks central air conditioning. Many front yards are paved with concrete, which absorbs and traps heat. The ZIP code has among the highest rates of heat-related ambulance calls in the city.

There are places like Gilpin all across the United States. In cities like Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Portland and New York, neighborhoods that are poorer and have more residents of color can be 5 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter parts of the same city.

And there’s growing evidence that this is no coincidence. In the 20th century, local and federal officials, usually white, enacted policies that...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to hold off on the implementation of a new fee that is aimed at covering losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had announced earlier this month that they would begin charging lenders a 0.5% “adverse market” fee on all refinances beginning on Sept. 1. Now, the two mortgage giants will wait until December to implement the fee.

Since Gov. Greg Abbott declared a public health disaster in March, almost one-third of Harris County's evictions have been filed in the justice of the peace precinct covering the southwestern portion of the county.

by Juan Pablo Garnham Aug. 25, 20203 hours ago