From the Coalition on Human Needs (http://www.chn.org):
Nearly half of all adults (47.5%) live in a household where someone has lost income from work since March 13th. Poverty and homelessness are being exacerbated by the pandemic, with people of color experiencing economic insecurity at even higher rates.
In April, 26% of Black households and 21% of Latinx households were unable to afford rent compared to 12% of white households. Congress must pass a comprehensive series of reforms to attack this problem.
We cannot allow families to be forced from their homes and into the streets in the midst of a global pandemic.
Approximately 40 million Americans have lost their jobs so far during the COVID-19 pandemic. But we are only starting to get a full understanding of the economic ramifications the pandemic has had on tens of millions of families and poor people across the United States. We do know this: in more than one-quarter of households where someone has lost income from work since mid-March, they have not been able to pay last month’s rent.
Add your name at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/add-your-name-demand-congress-broaden-the-moratorium-on-evictions-and-provide-emergency-rental-assistance-so-people-are-able-to-pay-their-rent! Demand the U.S. Senate pass a robust legislative package to address poverty and homelessness in the midst of the pandemic by broadening the moratorium on evictions, and including emergency rental assistance to prevent people and families from falling behind on their rent.
People who are homeless and contract coronavirus are twice as likely to be hospitalized, two to four times as likely to require critical care, and two to three times as likely to die than others in the general public, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.1
Congress must implement a uniform policy that assures renters will not lose their homes because of a pandemic. Never has the interconnectedness of health, home, and justice been more clear.
We need emergency rental assistance and eviction prevention. A moratorium on evictions, on its own, is not enough. Congress must also provide $100 billion in rental assistance so renters won’t owe back rent when the moratorium is lifted.
A previous coronavirus relief package, the CARES Act, provided some assistance for low-income renters, plus funding to prevent a bigger outbreak among people dealing with homelessness. That was an important first step. But there is still more work to do. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, $100 billion in emergency rental assistance would keep the lowest-income households stably housed over the next year, helping with rent payments or security deposits to get homeless families into housing. That’s been included in the House-passed HEROES bill for COVID-19 relief, and in a new bill―the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act. (See this fact sheet about the bill, sponsored by Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Denny Heck (D-WA) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
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