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Collection: Coronavirus and Cascadia

Renter Aid Should Kick in Automatically

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Congress has wasted our time, destabilized the economy, and left millions to struggle. There's a better way. Renter aid should kick in automatically.

[takeaway_box heading=”Congress has wasted our time, destabilized the economy, and left millions to struggle. There|apos;s a better way. Renter aid should kick in automatically. ” takeaways='{“0”:{“text”:”The collapse of federal stimulus talks may have killed a long-awaited relief package for renters facing eviction”},”1″:{“text”:”The six-month fight for such a package was needed mostly because US renter subsidies … Read more

Renters Face A Ticking Bomb

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The CARES Act’s unemployment insurance, paycheck protection loans, and stimulus checks shoveled over $1 trillion into American’s wallets from April through July. That aid provided critical relief for renters, who’ve been slammed disproportionately by job losses and were all too often already crushed under high rents even before the pandemic.  If Congress can’t pass another … Read more

Cascadia Re-Ups Eviction Moratoriums As Federal Ban Expires

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Family at Home, In the Kitchen

Since the pandemic shut down the US in March, two factors have held off an explosion of US renters losing their homes: emergency federal unemployment insurance (UI) payments of $600 per week and eviction bans at multiple levels of government. But now the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium and the expiration of the UI payments today have renters facing an uncertain future and lawmakers scrambling to strike a deal. 

In May, House Democrats passed the $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which would have extended both the UI payments and the moratorium on evictions (and expand it to include all renters), in addition to $100 billion of emergency aid for renters. This week, Senate Republicans finally introduced their $1 trillion aid package counterproposal, which slashes UI payments by two-thirds and does not include an eviction ban.

The federal eviction ban, part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in late March, covered over a quarter of US rental homes. A patchwork of state and local moratoriums has also been protecting many renters, but these bans are temporary, and many have ended or soon will. If the Senate severely curtails financial support for renters in the next relief package while failing to renew or expand the federal eviction moratorium, state and local eviction bans will become an even bigger factor in keeping renters in their homes.

In an April article, Sightline catalogued the eviction bans put in place across Cascadia in response to the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout. Here is an update.

Expiration of federal eviction moratorium puts 12 million renters at risk

The federal moratorium on evictions had banned eviction filings over nonpayment of rent and late fees for homes with federally backed mortgages issued through Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, or the Federal Housing Administration. The ban also applied to homes supported with US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding, including Section 8 vouchers, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, rural housing voucher programs, public housing, and more. These protections applied to about 12 million of the total 44 million US rental homes.

Upon the ban’s expiration July 25, landlords can once again issue eviction notices. But even prior to the expiration date, some landlords had pursued evictions despite the federal law. Since CARES Act did not impose penalties for landlords who try to evict tenants from federally protected properties, unscrupulous landlords could try to intimidate tenants who don’t understand the law into leaving their homes.

Congress will likely decide the fate of an eviction ban in the next coronavirus aid package over the next two weeks, as the clock ticks toward its August recess.

State eviction bans still protect most renters in Cascadia

In the meantime, most states in Cascadia still have eviction moratoriums in place that help prevent landlords from removing renters from their homes.

Washington

Washington’s eviction moratorium was set to expire August 1 until the Governor Jay Inslee extended it through October 15. The new moratorium clarifies that landlords may only serve eviction notices if there is a health and safety risk or if the landlord provides a 60-day written notice of their intent to live in the unit or sell it. The new order also maintains the ban on rent increases for residential units as well as commercial units impacted by COVID-19. It does, however, establish a work group to investigate reauthorizing rent increases.

Oregon

Before the state’s 90-day eviction ban expired at the end of June, the Oregon legislature passed House Bill 4213, which extended the eviction moratorium through September. The bill applies only to cases of nonpayment of rent and gives tenants six months after the ban ends to pay back rent.

Idaho

An April court order stopped eviction court proceedings until May, after which courts could resume evictions remotely. But last week an Ada County judge effectively barred evictions when he struck down a statute in the Idaho Constitution that banned the right to a jury trial for tenants facing eviction, since jury trials for civil cases are still on hold until October 5.

Alaska

Alaska’s eviction ban, which the state legislature enacted in late March, expired at the end of June. The ban had prevented evictions based on nonpayment of rent for those financially impacted by COVID-19. The Alaska Supreme Court ordered that non-jury eviction cases could proceed beginning July 1, making tenants in places not protected by local bans vulnerable to eviction.

Some local governments’ bans offer further protection while others rely on state moratoriums

Sightline’s previous article inventoried city and county bans as of April. Since then, localities have largely relied on state moratoriums, but some local governments have taken their own action.

In Washington, Seattle’s eviction moratorium was set to run through June. As both city and state bans neared expiration, the city council was prompted to extend it through the end of the year. This extension grants a defense from eviction in cases of nonpayment of rent, which King County also approved in a similar measure for unincorporated areas. Portland, Oregon, on the other hand, didn’t update its eviction moratorium, which now falls under the state ban that lasts only through September.

But not all of Cascadia’s major cities fully banned evictions at the local level. Boise, Idaho, initially banned evictions for public housing units, but the measure expired after April 30 and the city hasn’t established any other eviction protections, though eviction cases are halted throughout Idaho until October.

Anchorage stands out as the largest Cascadian city without any eviction protections. With the expiration of Alaska’s moratorium in June and the federal ban ending last week, Anchorage tenants who have lost their jobs during the pandemic can now be evicted freely. Motivated by the looming threat, the Anchorage Assembly is now considering a proposal to ban evictions through September.

Allowances for payback plans offer buffer time for tenants after eviction bans end

Eviction bans don’t exempt tenants from their legal obligation to pay back rent. Most renters who have been struggling financially won’t have the resources to pay all their back rent and utility bills right away, which could put them at risk of eviction once again down the road.

The CARES Act gives tenants 30 days to pay missed rent after the federal eviction ban ends—a bare minimum timeframe that’s likely insufficient for most cash-strapped renters. To further protect renters from this bind, some state and local governments have enacted requirements for landlords to offer tenants extended payment plans. Washington and Oregon, as well as Seattle, Portland, Multnomah County, and Beaverton, Oregon, and British Columbia currently have such rules.

Portland and Multnomah County were the first Cascadian jurisdictions to establish a six-month grace period for tenants to pay back rent and missed utility payments; the neighboring city of Beaverton quickly followed. In Seattle, the city council approved a similar six-month grace period and specified a default payment schedule where tenants make payments in three to six equal installments, depending on the amount owed. Washington barred landlords from pursuing eviction in the future if rent wasn’t paid due to COVID-19, unless the tenant refuses a payment plan or defaults on one. However, Washington’s rules don’t specify a length of time or schedule for the payment plan. When Oregon extended its eviction moratorium through September, it also established a six-month grace period for tenants to pay back rent and allowed landlords to propose a voluntary payment plan schedule.

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Alaska Finances: A Cautionary Tale

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For those looking to understand the risks of hitching an economy to fossil fuels—and for those trying to determine how to manage a transition away from dirty energy—it’s instructive to examine the fiscal meltdown happening in Alaska in 2020.

Will the Next US Federal Aid Package Rescue Renters?

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Unemployment insurance and other emergency COVID-19 supports have worked to date to help keep renters in their homes. But as benefits and eviction bans expire over coming days and weeks, time is running out for Congress to act with adequate relief to stave off disaster for renters across the US—and for the US economy.  Back … Read more

Relief Buoys BC’s Affordable Housing Providers—So Far

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The people who manage co-op and nonprofit housing in British Columbia braced themselves for the worst on April 1. It seemed likely that BC’s affordable housing providers would be hit hard as the pandemic cut a swath through BC jobs and people weren’t able to pay their rent .

Government-assisted housing is home to many in BC who work at low- or modest-paying jobs—first in line for furloughs, reduced hours, and layoffs. Co-ops and nonprofits account for the vast majority of the estimated 113,000 subsidized households in the province. (Both types of providers serve a mix of incomes and not all units are subsidized.)

Lock downs and safety precautions added extra costs for nonprofit and co-op housing providers as well: more cleaning, more units empty because people couldn’t move in. But things have worked out surprisingly well, say those who lead the umbrella associations of nonprofit and co-op housing in BC. 

Providers of subsidized homes are staying afloat in large part because the BC government stepped up.


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Providers of subsidized homes are staying afloat in large part because the BC government stepped up with support, from bending the usual rules so that more people could access rent-relief programs to providing extra money for subsidies, cleaning equipment, and more.

“The provincial government has been very proactive,” said Thom Armstrong, the CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC, which represents the interests of the almost 16,000 BC households who live in co-ops (0.9 percent of BC’s total households).

On the non-profit side, which accounts for 65,000 units in the province, operators are assured that BC Housing, the provincial agency that oversees directly subsidized homes, will provide subsidies to compensate for tenants’ plummeting incomes.

“I’m confident the government will be there. We just don’t know what shape it will take,” said Jill Atkey, the CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.

1990s-era social housing (foreground) in Vancouver, BC. Photo by Frances Bula, used with permission.

BC’s social-housing system is big—and complicated

BC Housing, which spent $1.25 billion in its most recent fiscal year, provides subsidies for housing through a variety of mechanisms. There are direct subsidies, based on a rent-geared-to-income practice, in the 5,500 units of old-style public housing that it still owns and manages. Independent non-profit providers get subsidies based on their income mix, along with a lot of supervision of their budgets and operations. And the agency provides rent “supplements” to another 34,200 households in the private market. 

The agency also manages the development of new home creation projects that are part of the NDP government’s aggressive building plan (it funded 4,000 new units in its most recent fiscal year), housing that is typically turned over to nonprofits. 

Management of these homes is in keeping with the philosophy throughout Canada since the 1980s to serve communities better by shifting away from projects dominated by low-income households requiring a subsidy, and toward mixed-income buildings, run by nonprofits or co-ops, that charge rent on a sliding scale. Typical rents in a single building can range from a minimum of $375 (the shelter amount of a welfare check) to a maximum that is pegged to the low end of what is available in the private market in that neighborhood.  

And those projects can take many different shapes because of the way government-supported housing works in Canada—a far more complex and multi-layered system than what exists in the American part of Cascadia.

The US federal government’s main tool for creating subsidized housing doesn’t exist in Canada: the low-income housing tax credit. Created in 1986, it provides a stream of investment money, with rules about what the projects are supposed to achieve. These tax credits have flowed into more than three million units since the start.

But Canada’s federal government withdrew from any kind of tax benefit programs to incentivize rental housing by the early 1980s and ended its direct support for new social housing in 1994. Since then, it has been left mainly to the provinces to fund new subsidized housing projects and to manage those left over from the federal system. 

BC remained a leader among Canadian provinces, continuing to provide money for new developments, except for a few years after the BC Liberals were elected in 2001. Some BC cities have stepped up in recent years by providing free or nearly free land and density bonuses to help with construction of new social, but it’s the province that pays all the bills for operating subsidies.

Government-supported housing in the province operates under myriad rules, many of which can be rigid. Non-profits have their budgets carefully scrutinized by BC Housing, can’t always retain surpluses, must adhere to complicated rent level requirements, and have to fill out forms every time a household’s income changes.

“In the States, it’s run a bit more like a system. And the tax-credit program gives the operator so much more flexibility,” says Atkey. “Here it’s prescriptive. And, among the 65,000 units of non-profit housing, there are at least 30 different programs.”

That’s just among the non-profits. Co-op housing is a whole other system—one that’s almost unknown in the United States. Unlike co-ops in the US, which tend to be more of the private-equity kind, famous in New York for their rigorous screening of prospective tenants, Canadian co-ops are collective non-profits that don’t allow for sales of individual units. 

Instead, people accepted as members in Canadian co-ops pay a small share to join and the co-op as a whole remains the property of the legal association running it. They became popular in the 1980s, originally supported with federal subsidies to cover part of the cost of their mortgages. Co-ops are managed by boards of their residents, who decide on the mix of income levels and subsidies the group can sustain.

The constraints imposed by the high level of government control have been balanced by an upside during a cataclysmic event like the pandemic: the close link has meant more immediate lines of communication between the province and BC’s affordable housing providers—and tenants—and more efficient  government support. That’s a contrast to the American side of Cascadia, where non-profits have been struggling through the pandemic with little backstopping from governments. 

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