Former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers argued on Friday that the doomsayers were wrong to predict a massive wave of evictions after the removal of a ban on filings during the coronaviruses.
Four months after the COVID eviction ban was struck down, it is clear that no large wave of evictions or evidence of broad suffering has emerged, despite the claims of many. Similar reasoning is likely to apply to student debt. There was an outcry from many Democrats in Congress after the Supreme Court struck down the administration's ban on evictions. Goldman Sachs predicted that the US would see over 750,000 evictions, while the National Low Income Housing Coalition said the inevitable consequence would be millions of people losing their homes this fall and winter. After the Supreme Court's decision, a preliminary analysis by Princeton University's Eviction Lab showed a much smaller change. The group saw 20.4% filed in the three months after SCOTUS' decision. At their highest level in October, evictions were recorded at 48,387 or 63.4% of the historical average.
The authors said that there was no immediate tsunami of eviction cases in the months following the end of the federal eviction moratorium.
The moratorium's effects may have been mitigated by a variety of factors, but they cautioned that the future could be different.
Emergency Rental Assistance, which they noted, is starting to run out in certain areas of the country.
In August and September there were more programs to apply for rent and the money was arriving faster, but I think now landlords are tired of waiting for the help of the government, said Mitzi Ordo ez of the Texas Organizing Project in Houston.
Federal funds for legal counsel and eviction diversion, federally established income supports and lower rental demand were among the other factors that could be considered a potential factor.