Cash-burning alternative, cash lacking and Kasich backing

We love the irony here: Four years ago, thenohio Gov. John Kasich snubbed the Republican National Convention when Cleveland hosted it, still miffed that he could not beat out Donald Trump for the nomination. Now it is reported that Kasich will speak at the Democratic National Convention in August, supposedly to support Joe Biden, and clearly to continue his grudge against Trump.

Let the sun shine on the old landfill bordering I-71 on the South Side. The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio is leasing most of the 186 acres, last used for recreation as the Phoenix Golf Links, to be reborn as a solar farm. Not nearly as controversial as the city’s ill-fated “cash-burning” power plant once operated nearby, this move by SWACO could bring in an estimated $12 million over 25 years. Greens fees would never bring in as much as green energy on the site.

COVID-19’S disruptions now include fomenting a cashless society. Cash-heavy businesses like laundromats and car washes aren’t taking in coins like they used to, and fewer coins are being circulated in general, depleting the supply. Banks like Heartland Banccorp are urging customers to empty their piggybanks to help replenish the jingle as some stores are limiting checkout lanes that will actually make change.

Kudos to Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein for tapping former U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart and the John Glenn College to review how police have responded to ongoing Downtown protests. Stewart, an appointee of President Barack Obama but not involved in local politics, will work with the college to help the city learn how to improve law enforcement engagement in high-profile events.

Coronavirus has sidelined most youth sports and forced professional athletics to regroup without spectators, but the contagion is well positioned to propel the popularity of fencing. Masks and gloves already are required for the sword play, not to mention the social distancing built in with 4-foot-long sabers, could be just the ticket for youth with energy to burn and fewer outlets to release it. En garde!

When is being a tattletale a good thing? Maybe when spilling the beans tags businesses that are falling down on the job of keeping customers and employees safe from COVID-19. Dozens of calls to Franklin County Public Health in a recent week ratted out local stores for maskless customers and staff — more than twice the average of 30 a week from April 2 to July 15. Watch that number grow if folks don’t comply with the new statewide mandate.

We’re pretty sure Kora isn’t the first new mother of twins to briefly seek hiatus. Thankfully, the red panda who escaped her enclosure at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was found safe Thursday after a two-day lam in nearby trees.

Add COVID-19 to the souvenirs that at least 19 people took home, and shared with three others, after going to the Pickaway County Fair in June. A new report from Pickaway County Public Health found fair staff, vendors and visitors did not follow plans made in advance for wearing face masks and social distancing.

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 alarm bells ought to be ringing: The U.S. is on the verge of allowing a mass dislocation of lower-income households that could dwarf the last crisis.

The immediate need is for Congress to impose a nationwide moratorium on evictions and then to give people who have lost their jobs the money required for rent or mortgage payments. The moratorium is necessary because it takes time to distribute aid; it would protect people from losing homes while help is on the way. The aid is necessary because erasing obligations would merely move the crisis up the food chain. About 47% of rental units are owned by individual investors, who must pay their debts, too.

Much of the necessary money can be provided by continuing the $600 weekly payments that the federal government has made to unemployed workers since April. The Urban Institute calculates that those payments provide roughly two-thirds of the $5.5 billion

TALK TO US

in monthly aid required to keep people in their homes.

The House passed a bill in May that more than addresses these needs. Senate Republicans have not offered a counterproposal.

After insisting for months that additional federal aid was not required, Republicans have acknowledged the need to do something, but they have yet to agree on the details. A draft proposal that circulated Thursday included no mention of direct housing aid, while calling for a sharp reduction in unemployment benefits.

Congress also needs to provide expert assistance to tenants and homeowners facing the loss of homes. People regularly get evicted even when the law is on their side. The federal government has imposed a moratorium on evictions from properties with mortgages backed by the federal government, but only 14 states require landlords to certify that their property is not covered.

Congress also should resurrect the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, created in 2008 in response to the last housing crisis and ended in 2018.

The need for such measures is not merely a product of an unexpected public health crisis. It also reflects the fact that millions of lower-income households were teetering on the brink of eviction during the previous decade of economic growth.

Congress ought to take the lessons of this crisis, and the last one, and act to ensure every American has access to affordable housing. There is no justification for providing aid to people facing eviction during a public health crisis but not to those who face eviction during an ordinary July.

Food stamps are available to every American who demonstrates need, because people need food. Housing aid ought to be available on the same terms, because people need shelter, too.

The New York Times

The Dispatch invites your thoughts in typed letters of about 200 words; all might be edited. They can be emailed to letters@dispatch.com. Include name, home address and daytime phone in order to be considered for publication.