As Coronavirus Relief and Eviction Protections Expire Millions at Risk of Losing Homes

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which kept many families afloat with supplemental unemployment insurance benefits and suspended evictions in federally supported housing, expires on July 25. 

An order by the Texas Supreme Court halted evictions in mid-March, but they were allowed to resume on May 26.  Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers's two-month ban on evictions expired on May 27. Tenants still had some assistance, including enhanced unemployment insurance of $600 per week, but Congress has not yet acted to extend the program. 

"With the expiration of the CARES Act and no federal intervention in sight, Congress is putting Americans and the housing market in great jeopardy. What was an entirely preventable crisis that has become a humanitarian disaster of the United States' own making? Americans will be left with the bill and paying for the societal costs of widespread eviction well into the future," said Emily Benfer, chair of the American Bar Association's Task Force Committee on Eviction and a visiting professor at Wake Forest Law School. 

In data provided to Yahoo News by Peter Hepburn, a research fellow at the Eviction Lab, Milwaukee filings were 17 percent above the historical average in June.

"As the moratorium has ended, the eviction process has been in full swing, so the number of cases we've been seeing is kind of overwhelming. The federal moratorium is set to expire on July 25, and I think that number is just going to increase," said Jon-Ross Trevino, a managing attorney at Lone Star Legal Aid.

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