Rents and evictions are skyrocketing: We need national housing security

In the midterm elections, local governments from California to Florida passed a range of housing measures, including rent stabilization and significant investment in affordable housing, in response to continuing inflation and a surge in rent prices nationwide. While these measures will provide significant relief and address housing security in many communities, they don’t go far enough to address the ongoing eviction crisis.  

Over 3.6 million eviction cases were filed in 2018. After declining early on in the pandemic, evictions have steadily increased and returned to pre-pandemic levels. Consider the following numbers:  

The Las Vegas Justice Court is on track to hear over 45,000 eviction cases in 2022 alone, as compared to earlier years when the average was closer to 30,000 cases. 

In Dallas County, home to the city of Dallas, landlords filed almost 60,000 evictions between January 2021 and November 2022.  

In September of this year, 6,685 eviction cases were filed in the Phoenix Metro area, marking the highest number since 2008.  

Evictions have surged in Oklahoma County, which includes Oklahoma City, and are over 40 percent higher than they were prior to the pandemic, with over 1,800 evictions filed in September alone. 

The recent surge in evictions coincides with the end of federal pandemic legislation and policies aimed at assisting renters and preventing evictions and foreclosures. During the pandemic, the federal government enacted legislation establishing the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, appropriating over $45 billion in rental assistance and related measures. In addition, Congress, President Biden, and the Centers for Disease Control each took actions to authorize and extend national eviction moratoriums between 2020 and 2021.      

These actions were unprecedented and marked an important milestone for the nation and helped prevent or delay over 1.3 million eviction cases in 2021. But with the end of the moratorium and federal rental assistance funding, the U.S. has reached a critical juncture that highlights a key reality: Unlike other national constitutions, the U.S. Constitution does not recognize a constitutional right to housing. As a result, there is no “constitutional floor” that provides universal protections and safeguards for vulnerable renters in every state.    

The lack of a guarantee of housing stability has significant implications for the exercise of other civil and political rights in our system — housing insecurity impacts individuals’ health and well-being, their ability to work and their ability to vote and participate in our political system. Housing insecurity poses an existential threat to the promise of economic opportunity for all, but it disproportionately impacts minority communities. 

In the absence of a federal constitutional right, it is imperative that Congress enact legislation to create permanent protections and legal safeguards for renters and to make permanent annual federal rental assistance funding to guarantee housing security and stability for all Americans.    

To be sure, landlords were also significantly impacted during the pandemic, especially those who rent individual houses or smaller numbers of units. However, as illustrated during the pandemic, federal rental assistance funding and eviction diversion programs can provide benefits to both renters and landlords. 

Indeed, many states and localities have enacted policies and actions aimed at reducing evictions through eviction diversion programs, legal aid, and right-to-counsel programs for renters. Recognizing the need to coordinate with states and localities as pandemic rental assistance funding runs out, the Biden administration has taken some important actions. 

At a recent White House summit in August, the Biden administration highlighted eviction diversion initiatives in Michigan, Indiana, New Mexico, Texas, and legal aid and right-to-counsel programs in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Cleveland, and New Orleans. 

While these are significant measures, they still constitute a temporary and incomplete patchwork of policies that do not reach all Americans, as many state and local governments are doing little to protect renters as rents soar and eviction filings skyrocket.   

We saw a glimpse of the possibility of federal power to address systemic crises during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic highlighted the day-to-day precarity that millions of Americans have been dealing with for decades. But at the same time, the pandemic also highlighted the weaknesses and shortcomings of our federal system and the temporary and limited nature of the national response to the eviction crisis during the pandemic.  

It’s time for Congress to enact a National Housing Security Act to stabilize housing markets and communities. The act would codify legal rights and protections for tenants, and eviction diversion policies that have been enacted in 31 states and 67 localities.  This would include codification of a right to counsel for tenants, and pauses on eviction processes for rental assistance applicants. These policies have significantly reduced the number of evictions in cities including San Francisco, New York, and Cleveland. 

Second, in line with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the National Housing Security Act would allocate $25 billion annually to permanently fund a national emergency rental assistance fund and provide support for affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs. The Biden administration recently redirected $377 million in rental assistance funds to states with larger numbers of tenants that quickly spent down their allocated funds. The act would target funding to states based on the size of renter populations. 

We cannot and should not wait for another pandemic or national health emergency to take action.  Congress must act now. 

Manoj Mate is an associate professor of law, the inaugural Faculty Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at DePaul University College of Law and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project.