Millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic are now in grave danger of losing their homes too with little chance of an imminent economic rebound.
Citing a survey by the Census Bureau, the New York Times says in an article that 22 percent of households do not expect to be able to make their next monthly rent or mortgage payment.
Temporary limits on evictions, imposed in the early weeks of the US crisis, are gradually ending, and a growing number of lenders and landlords are seeking to evict those who cannot pay.
The article says the plight of desperate tenants and homeowners is attracting far less attention than it did during the housing crisis that
eaked in 2008, perhaps because this time the problems did not begin in the housing market, or perhaps because this crisis arrived so abruptly.
“But the alarm bells ought to be ringing: The United States is on the verge of allowing a mass dislocation of lower-income households that could dwarf the last crisis,” it adds.
The article suggests that Congress impose a nationwide moratorium on evictions and take necessary measures to give people, who have lost their jobs, the money required for rent or mortgage payments.
“The moratorium is necessary because it takes time to distribute aid; it would protect people from losing homes while help is on the way. The aid is necessary because erasing obligations, as some have proposed, would merely move the crisis up the food chain. About 47 percent of rental units are owned by individual investors, who must pay their debts, too,” it says.