As Pandemic Renter Protections Expire, Wave of Evictions Could Follow

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Millions of renters could face evictions now that rental relief programs and bans on evictions have expired, or will soon. Those government programs targeted people who lost income during the pandemic, but many Californians have yet to recover financially and owe thousands in back rent. Even under existing programs, more than 135,000 households in California, nearly a third of the total, had their rent relief applications rejected, according to CalMatters. All of that along with rents creeping back up to pre-pandemic levels, could make way for a wave of new evictions. We’ll talk about vulnerable tenants and what local, state and federal agencies could do to help. Guests: Erin Baldassari, housing affordability reporter, KQED; co-host, "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America" podcast Manuela Tobias, housing reporter, CalMatters Bonnie Bertram, producer and writer, Retro Report; partnered with Frontline, documentary "Facing Eviction" debuts on July 26. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
0:07.4	recently voted the number one destination spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine.
0:12.8	Summer retreat packages of three, four, or seven nights including hiking, water classes,
0:19.0	mindfulness, spa therapies, and culinary adventures with
0:22.8	farm-fresh ingredients. Learn more at Rancho LePuerta.com.
0:27.3	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a
0:33.2	true story. From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and
0:39.7	Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused
0:46.3	of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
0:53.4	and devotion.
1:02.6	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.9	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.5	From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:24.6	As the coronavirus spread in 2020, the federal government took an unprecedented
1:29.1	step to protect public health. The CDC issued an eviction moratorium that was intended to prevent
1:35.4	people from being tossed out on the street during the crisis. But reporting that we'll share
1:40.3	on today's episode shows that the impact of that measure was extremely dependent on state
1:45.5	and local enforcement. We're talking evictions here in the Bay Area, around California, and across
1:50.5	the nation as eviction bans continued to expire. Did the CDC's measure work? And are we about
1:56.4	to see a wave of evictions that will put more people out onto our streets. We'll discuss after this news.
2:02.2	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Over the last 10 years, social scientists have made the case that evictions aren't just a consequence of financial and social hardship. They're also a cause of further decline in people's quality of life. Housing provides stability and losing it in an eviction can mean the difference between a tough time becoming a short-term situation
2:34.8	or a spiral down into chronic homelessness. At the same time, mom and pop landlords especially
	...

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