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Millions of people have lost their jobs during this pandemic, but many of them have been able to pay their rent because of an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits. Well, for most workers, that ends today, and landlords and renters are worried this could mean millions of people getting evicted unless Congress acts quickly. Here's NPR's Chris Arnold.
CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: Merry Collins lost her job as a home health aide in Dallas after the outbreak hit, and she says before she started getting that $600 a week, she got behind on the rent. And her landlord took her to court to evict her.
MERRY COLLINS: On June 16, they filed, which was the first day the courts opened here in Dallas. Hold on. I'm sorry. I'm getting a little winded. That's when they filed for eviction.
ARNOLD: Collins has trouble breathing because she has COVID-19. She tested positive. She's a single mom caring for her disabled teenage son. He got the virus too, and even though she says she told her landlord that and that now she is getting unemployment benefits and could work on a plan to catch up on the rent, she says her landlord has kept trying to evict her.
COLLINS: Most of my house is, like, 80% packed. So in the middle of me being sick, I'd get up and pack a box and then collapse. Just packing one box would wear me out. So the last two weeks, and that - I have to have everything ready because if they show up and say, you got to go now, I have to be ready.
ARNOLD: Her landlord, which, in the eviction court documents, is named as Overton Apartments, did not return emails and calls requesting an interview. If that extra $600 a week was going to keep coming, though, Collins could afford to rent some other apartment. But Congress hasn't worked out a plan to extend or replace that, so she and more than 25 million other unemployed people are losing that extra money after today or this weekend. Meanwhile, a federal moratorium that protects some renters in big apartment buildings from eviction is ending, too.
DIANE YENTEL: I'm deeply worried.
ARNOLD: Diane Yentel is the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
YENTEL: It's very clear that without a sustained federal intervention, there will be a wave of evictions and a spike in homelessness across the country. And in fact, that wave has already begun, and Congress needs to act to prevent it from becoming a tsunami. And we are running out of time.
ARNOLD: She says even where the coronavirus is raging right now - Arizona, Texas - we're seeing thousands of eviction filings. But we'd be seeing a lot more if it hadn't been for that extra $600 a week. Priscilla Almodovar is the CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable housing nonprofit.
PRISCILLA ALMODOVAR: We have evidence that it's really - it's been the federal stimulus money that has kept renters in their homes.
ARNOLD: And if Congress fails to act, like with so many other parts of this crisis, she says people of color will be disproportionately hurt.
ALMODOVAR: Especially low-income communities of Black and Latino renters will lose their home, and it'll be more acute in African American communities. We're very concerned.
ARNOLD: Of course, a tidal wave of missed rent payments and evictions would hurt landlords, too. Greg Brown is with the National Apartment Association. He says landlords do not like to see renters losing that extra $600 a week either.
GREG BROWN: When these benefits run out, it's going to be a very difficult environment for owners who will be saying, well, how do I keep paying the bills that I have to pay if my residents aren't able to pay their rent? So it's - the cascade is very concerning, makes people very nervous.
ARNOLD: So tenants and landlord groups are both lobbying Congress for additional help beyond unemployment money targeted specifically at renters. Democrats in Congress want to set aside $100 billion for that in this next pandemic bill. Again, housing advocate Diane Yentel.
YENTEL: A hundred billion dollars could help 10 million renter households, so that's nearly 30 million people in those households.
ARNOLD: For her part, Merry Collins in Dallas, who has COVID and has been fighting the virus and eviction at the same time, she's so far been staving off eviction with the help of a pro bono lawyer. But she's worried that she could still be out in the street in just a few weeks.
COLLINS: I'm scared. I really am. I'm scared.
ARNOLD: Chris Arnold, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
