Eviction Bans Keep Renters Home, Curb COVID Spread
Dec. 28, 2020 Millions of Americans have struggled to pay their rent since the pandemic started, as the economic crisis brought pay cuts, furloughs, and job losses, adding insult to the coronavirus nightmare. Tenants are being evicted; some end up living in crowded homeless shelters or couch-surfing with family members or friends.
The Eviction Lab at Princeton University estimates there have been more than 150,000 evictions during the pandemic in the 27 cities it tracks.
“I spoke with one woman living with her 12-year-old daughter in an apartment who let a friend who had nowhere else to stay sleep in her living room. She is concerned about the risk of COVID-19 anytime you add a new member to your household, there’s an added risk,” says Danya Keene, PhD, an assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, CT.