Help renters now
Turner’s opposition to a city eviction grace period ordinance is perplexing.
The rent was due on the first. It will be due again soon enough, and more than 2.5 million Texas renters report no or only slight confidence that they’ll be able to cover rent next month.
As unemployment remains high — 9.9 percent locally in June, up from 4 percent a year earlier — and Congress fails to act on any legislation that could bring relief, the threat grows daily for thousands of Houstonians to be pushed onto the street or into overcrowded shared rooms and shelters.
President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order meant to extend the federal eviction moratorium, which expired July 24 and covered about 25 percent of renters, but advocates point out the order only urges agencies to “consider” extending the moratorium and to identify funds that could be used to help. No federal guidelines have so far been released.
Trump’s order could eventually help, but renters need aid now. More than 350 eviction cases have been filed in the first few days of August alone in Harris County, according to data from science consulting firm January Advisors. They join the more than 2,100 cases logged in July.
Even before the pandemic, our region faced a shortage of affordable housing and high eviction rates. COVID-19 has only made things worse.
Houston added $20 million to its rent relief program last week, a welcome move that will help thousands of households stave off eviction for a while longer. City officials recognize, though, that’s nowhere near enough and continues the Band-Aid approach to a crisis that seems to have no end in sight. The city’s previous $15 million rental aid fund was tapped in 90 minutes back in May.
Given the obvious need, we’ve been perplexed by Mayor Sylvester Turner’s opposition to an eviction grace period ordinance. It’s a simple measure, adopted in other large Texas cities, that would add another layer of protection for struggling Houstonians.
Turner should reconsider. Texas is a landlord-friendly state with little protection for renters, and the ordinance would simply give them more time to pay. It is backed by the city-county Housing Stability Task Force, composed of stakeholders including the Houston Apartment Association and tenant advocates.
Under the proposal, after being served an eviction notice, tenants would have 21 days to respond in writing that they cannot pay rent because of the pandemic. Those who do so would be given 60 days to work out a deal with their landlords, find rental assistance or come up with another way to pay.
If the tenant fails to respond, an eviction may proceed normally, and the ordinance would not preclude landlords from evicting tenants for other lease violations.
Turner has said a grace period only delays and deepens renters’ financial obligation.
“When their grace period comes to an end, they are facing a tsunami of a situation where the financial obligation has not been eliminated,” he told the Chronicle. “What will happen is that at the end, the hole is so much bigger.”
Landlord representatives agree that a grace period simply kicks the can down the road.
It’s true. But the answer isn’t to oppose a grace period. The answer is to find a way to couple it with enough funding — and the city’s additional $20 million is a good start — to keep tenants in their homes longer and their past-due balances smaller. That extra time for tenants could mean the difference between keeping a roof over their heads or losing their home. An eviction is an economic blow with long-term and often devastating impacts, such as job loss, poor educational outcomes for children and inability to find decent housing in the future.
An added wrinkle in considering any measure to delay evictions is a recent opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who wrote that local governments’ attempts amounted to rewriting state law. While the opinion is non binding, it could carry weight if someone sues over a local eviction moratorium, said Housing Stability Task Force member Zoe Middleton, the Houston and Southeast Texas co-director at Texas Housers.
Still, that shouldn’t deter local officials from doing the right thing.
“The moral thing to do is clear: reduce the harm of evictions by all means necessary,” Middleton told the editorial board.
Turner says the city by itself can’t do all that is needed, but insists the $20 million will help: “It doesn’t solve everything, because cities can’t do everything.”
Clearly. Congress needs to provide additional funding so landlords and tenants are made whole, or as close to whole as possible in this community crisis.
But Congress’ inaction is no excuse for Turner’s refusal to offer a grace period. He and council must do everything in their power to keep residents in their homes and avoid mass homelessness that would affect us all.
So far, Houston is falling short.