Housing crisis makes it hard to be home for the holidays

Today, many of us will give thanks for the blessing of a safe and stable home. As we do, thousands of Coloradans will pass the night in a homeless shelter. Others will mark the holiday in a motel room, on a friend’s couch, or parked in a trailer on land they do not own. They are all faces of a national housing crisis that persists even in a robust economy.

A stable and affordable home is fundamental to economic security. But for too many Americans, housing has become a source of anxiety. Since 1970, the cost of housing has increased 70 percent while family incomes have barely moved. The result is that nearly half of tenants spend over 30 percent of their incomes on rent. Millions of Americans now find themselves working but struggling to save, living each month one setback or emergency from disaster.

This month, I met with Coloradans who had been pushed to the edge — crane operators, nurses, and truck drivers. Several had college and even advanced degrees. Some described how an obscure lease violation or a landlord’s sudden decision to redevelop the property forced them from their homes. Others described how an illness, family emergency, or accident led to one late payment; a late payment led to an eviction; an eviction led to a lost job; and within months, they plunged into a cruel cycle of poverty.

This eviction crisis places an enormous cost on society: in the emergency room visits from those in fragile living conditions; in the joblessness and depression that follow removal from a home; and in the upheaval of young children forced to move from school to school.

This is yet another example of where bipartisan action could make a difference, but our dysfunctional politics in Washington stand in the way. If we could get our act together, there are simple but important steps we could take to address this crisis.

First, we need to understand the problem. Today, state and local governments employ disparate systems to report evictions. In some cases, they don’t report them at all. This bureaucratic mess obscures the scope of the problem. We need sound data and analysis. Building on initiatives like Matthew Desmond’s Eviction Lab, we should create a national database of eviction data to identify trends and target resources. We should also study the key causes and consequences of eviction to inform future policy.

Second, we need to reduce preventable evictions. In Colorado, just 2 percent of renters have legal representation compared to 90 percent of landlords. That imbalance, which is consistent with national trends, drives evictions that could be avoided through mediation, counseling, or other support. We should increase resources for legal services, expand opportunities for law students to represent vulnerable tenants, and help states launch programs that encourage mediation and help tenants get back on track. We should also support local emergency funds that help tenants weather bumps in the road and stay in their homes.

Third, in cases where eviction is unavoidable, we can do a lot more to limit the damage. Eviction often leads to a disruption in critical services like Medicaid and nutrition assistance when families need them most. We should provide local governments the tools to prevent this disruption and help evicted families find a home to avoid longterm hardship. By expanding access to legal services, we can also make it easier for tenants to negotiate more time and keep the black mark of eviction off their record.

Beyond these initial steps, we have considerable work ahead. So as we reflect this Thanksgiving, let’s rededicate ourselves to building a future in which every American family can gather over the holidays without worrying where their children will sleep the next night.