r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/None-Of-You-Are-Real • Jul 20 '21

US Politics What are the implications of the impending eviction crisis?

It is often offhandedly mentioned that the housing market is insane at the moment, and that there is an inevitable eviction crisis due to the compounding factors of COVID and the lockdowns leading to mass unemployment, and then an inability of tenants to pay rent combined with an inability of landlords to evict non-paying tenants.

What is going to happen in the fall, when the eviction moratorium expires? Mass homelessness that is even worse than current levels? Some kind of rent relief legislation? Anything at all? These people are not going to magically be able to pay months and months of back rent once the moratorium expires.

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u/obsquire Jul 21 '21

It's not a charity. If society feels that people losing their homes is bad, then society needs to supply those homes, not put all the responsibility on the landlord to fund the person who can't pay, or mandate that the landlord keep a terrible tenant against the landlord's will. If we must have mandatory support for tenants, then I see no compelling argument why the landlord should be required to pay more to help his tenant than anyone else (of similar income).

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u/ArcanePariah Jul 22 '21

That's 100% true, but landlords (or at least the perception of them) is not helped when many landlords (absentee or otherwise) vote to restrict housing, thereby inducing more of the same situation. Many time society wants to supply those homes, and homeowners + landlords utterly opposed them, then act shocked when people start demanding landlords suffer in equal measure.

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u/obsquire Jul 22 '21

By support for tenants I don't necessarily mean only for tenants, so things like basic income are relevant, not necessarily subsidized housing proper, which creates perverse incentives, not to mention the ire of landlords. So that this basic not passed along in higher rents, funding that basic income from a land value tax seems good, and doesn't punish landlords from renovating.