43 million Americans at Risk of Eviction

With Congress deadlocked on a new coronavirus relief package, a moratorium on evictions in federally backed housing expired last week. The moratorium covered more than 12 million households, or about 30% of all renters, but the total number of Americans possibly facing eviction is much higher.

Asked if there could be a tsunami of evictions as eviction bans start to phase out across the country, housing lawyer Dennericka Brooks said, "I don't think that tsunami can adequately capture the number of cases that we anticipate seeing."

Brooks, who is the director of housing at Legal Aid Chicago, thinks it will be worse.

"The courts are going to be flooded unless landlords make a good faith effort to try to be patient, and also to try to resolve rent dispute issues in a way that does not involve the court system," she said.

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