Losing a home in the middle of a pandemic is a fate no one should face. Just a few months ago at a local hospital, one of us sat across from a young man who stared into his lap. His wheelchair lacked one footrest, so his emaciated legs were shifted to the left. The drainage from his pressure sores was barely visible through a loosely fitting patient gown.
A year earlier, Marcus had suffered gunshot wounds that paralyzed his legs. He lost work. Despite a disability check, he couldn’t afford housing. Birmingham’s subsidized housing options, like those across the country, are severely limited. He stayed in boarding homes, then ran out of funds. When asked to leave, he turned to shelters and family. A few weeks before we saw him, he tested positive for COVID, albeit without symptoms. Sitting in his hospital room, he said that one of the few family members who had sheltered him, his grandmother, was dying from COVID pneumonia one floor above us. It was possible that her infection came from his scramble for a place to stay. It was heartbreaking, as we have the tools to prevent such tragedies right now.
Evictions are exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic across the nation. Though the federal government has taken steps to curb evictions, decisive action at the local level is critical to preventing further deaths.
Americans already faced an eviction crisis before the pandemic. A third of Americans rent, and a quarter pay more than half their income for rent. A woeful 3.7 million evictions were filed in 2016. This crisis has been driven by stagnant wages, rising rental costs, and inadequate public housing. With record unemployment in recent months, matters worsened.
Evictions precipitate homelessness and negatively impact health. Evicted tenants face higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, with attendant risk for severe COVID-19 complications. Evictions also drive COVID-19 transmission. People like Marcus scramble between shelters and “double up” with family, where distancing is infeasible.
Last year’s off-and-on restrictions helped reduce evictions from a typical figure of 3.7 million to 2.1 million in 2020. Eviction bans work: they reduce COVID-19 transmission two-fold and deaths by a factor of five, but such bans are porous and not honored similarly across jurisdictions. And the CDC’s current eviction ban will end on March 31, 2021.
Many more families will face suffering like that of Marcus and his grandmother if we do not act in Birmingham. We suggest a 3-step approach modeled after the success of Malden, Massachusetts. It would protect tenants at risk of eviction and their landlords, who shoulder dire financial obligations if the rent is not paid.
First, Birmingham should enact its own eviction moratorium that extends beyond March 31, 2021. The federal eviction ban has already been threatened by one federal court in Texas. Data from the Eviction Lab show that the expiration of eviction moratoria last July produced an eviction wave, before the CDC declared a nationwide moratorium in September. We cannot afford another wave in Birmingham next month.
Second, the city should partner with organizations to deliver legal aid for tenants facing evictions. The current protections still require renters to complete legal paperwork they may not know about, and sometimes to attend court hearings to prevent eviction. Recognizing this bureaucratic hurdle prior to the pandemic, New York City enacted the right to counsel in 2018, which prevented 22,000 evictions. Partnering with legal aid organizations and instituting a right to counsel will allow Birmingham to help people at risk of losing their homes.
Third, Birmingham must protect landlords by efficiently distributing federal rental assistance. The CDC’s pronouncements do not reimburse for back rent or late fees, placing mortgaged properties at risk of foreclosure. Birmingham and Jefferson County have received $19.7 million in federal assistance to put this right. But to our knowledge, most of these funds have not been dispensed. In fact, it is hard to distribute such funds rapidly and with integrity, particularly in a city with only one organization providing rental assistance, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
To prevent a surge of new evictions, and to make sure landlords survive, we need the active leadership of Mayor Woodfin, Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos, and our Congressional representatives, in partnership with major nonprofits. They must declare their commitment to act now. They should charge top aides with prioritizing expeditious relief and create new access points for that relief.
If Birmingham enacts an eviction moratorium, provides legal aid to at-risk tenants, and expands emergency rental assistance infrastructure, we might be able to prevent tragedies like those that befell Marcus and his grandmother.
Salmaan Kamal and Stefan Kertesz are physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. These views are their own, and do not represent formal positions of their employers. Contact salmaankamal@uabmc.edu and skertesz@uabmc.edu