A Wave of Evictions Would Be Bad for Everybody

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. rental market was in trouble. In 2017, economist Andrew Dumont calculated that 46.8% of U.S. renter households spent more than 30% of their income on housing. Poorer households, unsurprisingly, were even more heavily burdened; in 2015, the lowest-income quintile spent more than half of their income on rent.

Then came the pandemic. Although federal relief managed to support many unemployed workers and distressed businesses, many people fell through the cracks, failing to qualify for special unemployment benefits or bailout funds. And many Americans who didn’t have formal jobs before the crisis are in danger of the loss of under-the-table income. Now tens of millions of these unlucky people say they’re unable to pay rent, and a tidal wave of evictions is looming. Meanwhile, some landlords may be using the chaos and confusion of coronavirus to evict tenants they had wanted to get rid of for a while.