Here & Now

The Ending of the Federal Moratorium on Evictions

Frederica Freyberg:

The federal moratorium on evictions meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 is set to expire tomorrow. Some are predicting a tidal wave of evictions. Others say federal pandemic relief dollars are helping ensure that won’t happen. Marisa Wojcik explores the impact of the end of the moratorium with this story from Green Bay.

Danielle Kasee:

And they were going to pay it all off. And he still evicted me.

Marisa Wojcik:

It was one year ago, on her daughter’s birthday.

Danielle Kasee:

And he’s like, “All right, I’m giving you until the 31st to get out.” That’s my daughter’s birthday. It was her 16th birthday. We had no place to go.

Marisa Wojcik:

41-year-old Danielle Kasee said the rent check for her Green Bay apartment was put in the landlord’s mailbox. But the landlord claimed he didn’t get it. Danielle and her four children lost their housing on July 31, 2020.

Danielle Kasee:

When we moved in here, we were homeless. We were staying at friends’ houses. We stayed at the Freedom House for a couple months.

Marisa Wojcik:

A statewide eviction ban went from March to May of 2020. In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted a federal eviction moratorium to help curb the rise in COVID-19 cases. Tenants could not be threatened with eviction for not paying their rent. That moratorium is now set to expire July 31 and many are worried about the consequences. Danielle was evicted during a three-month gap after the state’s eviction ban ended and by the time the CDC enacted its ban in September, Danielle found herself in a homelessness purgatory.

Danielle Kasee:

No places were — you know, renting out because they couldn’t evict everybody because of that being in place. So I couldn’t find a decent place for what I could afford.

Marisa Wojcik:

And an eviction on her record made it even harder. But with allies on her side like the Northeast Wisconsin Community Action Program or NEWCAP she had a better shot at finding an apartment and working with a new landlord. NEWCAP also supported her where it matters most to a landlord: with rent. After she left her job due to COVID-19 safety concerns.

Danielle Kasee:

NEWCAP was like we’re here, you know. Like we’re going to help her. I, like, felt so relieved.

Marisa Wojcik:

Danielle is one of thousands of renters across the state getting rent relief from the Wisconsin Emergency Rental Assistance program, or WERA, distributed through community action programs, providing a new financial safety net to tenants and their landlords.

Joe Dekeyser:

Well, of course we saw things on the TV about, you know, it kind of almost nationally being announced that renters would somehow not have to pay their rent.

Marisa Wojcik:

Joe Dekeyser is a landlord to nine households in Green Bay, some of which were not immune to the hardships of the pandemic. Unable to pay rent, they turned to NEWCAP for help.

Joe Dekeyser:

I was — I was kind of actually surprised by it, that these organizations were just like, oh, yeah, we’re willing to help you and no problem and the payment’s coming right to you. It might be two weeks or so. And it all worked out.

Marisa Wojcik:

Three rounds of rental assistance have been designated to help keep renters’ housing status stable during a turbulent pandemic. More than $720 million in federal rental assistance will come to Wisconsin through 2025. To date, more than $74 million of that has gone to help 26,000 households across the state. And because these funds will be available far beyond the moratorium, some are not predicting a tidal wave of evictions once the ban is lifted.

Cheryl Detrick:

You can move no one from poverty. You can move no one from a bad economic situation to a better one. You can get no one trained and get them into a job if you don’t first have them housed.

Marisa Wojcik:

Cheryl Detrick is president and CEO of NEWCAP, which operates in ten counties in northeast Wisconsin. While community action programs provide a number of services prioritized by local community needs, one issue is at the top of everyone’s list: affordable housing.

Cheryl Detrick:

Affordable housing is and will be for the next decade the biggest problem we have to overcome. No place in the United States where two people working minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Marisa Wojcik:

But the edge of the cliff is shifting. And it’s not just the lowest income earners needing help.

Cheryl Detrick:

We’re also serving people between 60% and 80% of county median income. So 80% of county median income in Brown County for a single person is about $44,000. So we’re seeing this entirely different demographic of people than we’ve ever served before.

Marisa Wojcik:

On one side, the cost of living keeps going up. On the other side, incomes, especially those at the bottom, are stagnant.

Brad Paul:

There is a fundamental affordability problem, lack of available units. All of these things predate the pandemic. But right now the need is to meet people’s emergency needs and get them stabilized while we figure out longer-term solutions for our housing crisis.

Marisa Wojcik:

J. Scott Schnurer, a housing lawyer in Green Bay with the non-profit Legal Action Wisconsin provides counsel to as many tenants facing eviction as possible. He is expecting to be a lot busier after July 31.

J. Scott Schnurer:

We expect to be very overwhelmed. We’re already getting an increase in housing calls.

Marisa Wojcik:

Even with the rental assistance dollars, no one knows for sure what eviction numbers will look like when the moratorium expires. Over the last year, eviction filings fell to 19,427 in 2020, with the moratorium in place. That’s down from 27,026 filed in 2019. The fast pace of evictions was forced to slow down and evictions could be seen through a new lens.

Brad Paul:

It would be very beneficial from where I sit to have the moratorium extended, particularly because there is a significant amount of money in the housing system right now that can help stabilize people. Again, that helps landlords, too.

Marisa Wojcik:

Even before the pandemic, landlord Joe Dekeyser has worked with tenants who may have a past eviction on their record or who struggle financially.

Joe Dekeyser:

They were willing to improve on that and have a better quality of life and for me to give them an opportunity as a starting base it meant a lot that they could build from that and have some stability.

Marisa Wojcik:

A better quality of life and stability is what Danielle is working towards. And this year instead of worrying about the eviction moratorium expiring on July 31, she would rather make up for her daughter’s missed birthday exactly one year ago when they were evicted.

Danielle Kasee:

And I felt so bad, you know? So this year I have a surprise for her. So she’s going to go and have a bonfire with her friend’s at my daughter’s house on Sunday. I have something nice planned for her, so…

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik in Green Bay.