By failing to contain the coronavirus, the United States is allowing what began as a temporary disruption of economic life to do lasting damage to the nation’s prosperity and prospects. With little chance of an imminent economic rebound, millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the pandemic are now in grave danger of losing their homes, too.
Twenty-two percent of households say that they don’t expect to be able to make their next monthly rent or mortgage payment, according to a Census Bureau survey.
Temporary limits on evictions, imposed in the early weeks of the U.S. crisis, are gradually ending, and a growing number of lenders and landlords are seeking to evict those who cannot pay.
The plight of desperate tenants and homeowners is attracting far less attention than it did during the housing crisis that peaked in 2008, perhaps because this time the problems did not begin in the housing market, or perhaps because this crisis arrived so abruptly. But the alarm bells ought to be ringing: The United States is on the verge of allowing a mass dislocation of lower-income households that could dwarf the last crisis.