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Thursday, April 16, 2020

Stimulus provisions to protect low-income renters may not be enough; some call for temporary rent moratorium

The stimulus package included provisions meant to protect low-income renters from eviction and allow cash-strapped homeowners a grace period on their mortgage payments, but it may not be enough. Rural renters could be hit especially hard, since housing crunches in nearby urban areas have contributed to higher rural rents.

"The March legislation to rescue the economy from the covid-19 pandemic addresses, among others, two housing programs run by the Agriculture Department: the Rural Housing Service's Section 515 program that provides low-interest direct loans to build rental and cooperative housing in rural areas and the service's Section 502 program that directly lends to low-to moderate income borrowers and guarantees against default," Ellyn Ferguson reports for Roll Call.

Temporary eviction bans at the federal, state and municipal levels can help, but many of them have significant limitations, and not every state or county has passed such a ban. "Thirteen states — including Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming — allow cities and towns to set their own eviction policies," Alieza Durana and Matthew Desmond report for The Washington Post. "Some cities (Miami is a notable example) have responded by issuing moratoriums, but suburban and rural communities have been much slower to act. The problem is that housing insecurity affects communities large and small across the country. In fact, some rural towns have eviction rates that rival the highest-evicting cities."

Many affordable-housing advocates are calling for a national rent moratorium, "essentially relieving people of the responsibility to pay rent for some period of time instead of just allowing tenants to put off payments," Emma Coleman reports for Route Fifty. "This will free up cash for households that are already rent-burdened, allowing them to spend money on groceries, medicine, and other essential needs, they argue." Under such a plan, landlords would receive rent reimbursements from the government.

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