Advocacy groups urge lawmakers to find funding to prevent mass evictions

10th August 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer

Taking proactive measures such as protests and appeals to elected officials to address the crisis, fair housing and renters rights advocates say immediate action is direly needed to help financially-strapped residents from losing their homes.

Y. Frank Southall, organizer and spokesperson for the New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly, said residents and their advocates can’t back down.

“If we stand up, collectively together, then things will get done,” Southall told The Louisiana Weekly last week.

Cashauna Hill, executive director of the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, said the situation facing hundreds of local residents has reached a crisis level. On July 25, protections like the moratorium on renter evictions and income support that were part of the federal CARES Act and the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Act expired, and as yet the White House, Congress and the U.S. Senate have not reached an agreement on a new pandemic support bill that would reenact such anti-eviction measures.

As a result, Hill said, “as of July 26, landlords can start the eviction process” against renters unable to pay their rents as a result of the pandemic. And, she said, local eviction courts immediately saw numerous landlords move to evict residents.

“They’ve already started putting people on the street,” she said. “Eviction is absolutely terrifying for people who are struggling. We’re hearing from many tenants who are concerned, who are fearful of being evicted.”

On July 20, a few days before federal renter protections expired, the LaFHAC joined dozens of other non-profit agencies, advocacy organizations and volunteer groups and signed an open letter to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards telling him that “Louisiana rental property owners and the families who rent from them are approaching a cliff this fall.”

The letter further stated that in addition to the expiration of the earlier federal protections against evictions, a $24-million a state-run Louisiana Emergency Rental Assistance Program ran out of money in just three days, a depletion reflecting both the massive scale of the renters crisis and the stark inadequacy of the state’s actions to address the situation.

“As we approach this cliff together,” stated the July 20 open letter, “we urge you to make every effort to dramatically increase the funding dedicated to this program in order to ensure the solvency of our rental market, keep tens of thousands of families in their homes, and ultimately stabilize our economy.”

Hill told The Louisiana Weekly last week that government officials at every level – federal, state and city – must move quickly and aggressively to protect both renters and landlords who face defaulting on their mortgages because their rental revenue has dried up.

“[Public officials] have failed to provide for the needs of the population,” Hill said. “They’ve failed to stop the spread of COVID-19, and they’ve failed to stop” the eviction crisis. “Unfortunately, many people have been left struggling because of the government’s inaction.”

One week after the advocacy coalition sent its letter to Baton Rouge, the New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly took action as well by gathering at the First City Court in downtown New Orleans in an effort to physically block and disrupt the newly renewed eviction process in the legal arena. The July 30 protest drew about 300 advocates and volunteers.

“As COVID-19 infection rates rise and national economic uncertainty continues, City and State officials have refused to close eviction courts or offer adequate support for renters at risk of losing their homes,” said a statement released by NORRA.

The release noted that in addition to the inadequacy of the Louisiana Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a city-sponsored rental-assistance fund launched on July 27, offered just $1 million in aid even though estimates show that “renters across Louisiana need $250 million in funds to pay back rent and stabilize their housing, and renters in New Orleans need $50 million.”

The NORRA release further stated that the Black community is especially threatened by cost-burdened rental households, with Black women and their families especially jeopardized. “Protestors, directly impacted residents and advocates call upon Gov. John Bel Edwards, [New Orleans] Mayor [LaToya] Cantrell, the City Council and First City Court judges to cease all eviction proceedings immediately and indefinitely,” urged the NORRA release. NORRA spokesperson called the July 30 protest a success, but he added that the group hadn’t heard any direct or substantive response from government officials in the wake of the event.

“We got no policy statements,” Southall said, “just more empty words from the mayor and other folks about how they have no money available to help [renters].”

Southall said that in addition to taking action locally and statewide, elected officials in New Orleans and across Louisiana need to lobby federal policy-makers to press for concrete efforts on a national scale.

“They have to go to Washington, D.C., and get this money [needed to help renters].”

Failing all of that, advocates will have no other choice than to demand the closure of local eviction courts.

Southall added that any New Orleanians facing rental eviction can contact NORRA to enlist help as they fight to keep their homes.

“The key is to not wait a single second,” he said. “Eviction can happen so quickly, so you need to [reach out for help] as soon as possible.”

This article originally published in the August 10, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.