Mass Evictions? Council & Mayor Need to Step up to the Plate

TENAC

Eviction Tsunami Looming: Disaster In the Making Without More Meaningful Assistance  IN LOPSIDED PLAN, LANDLORDS WOULD  SHOULDER NONE OF THE BURDEN COUNCIL AND MAYOR, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!       Tenants face an eviction tsunami from job and income loss from the global pandemic. To assist in the crisis, the city council passed an emergency measure that requires landlords to offer payment plans with tenants before any eviction action, stretching out payments for up to one year.      Payments would be divided in equal installments.  However, many tenants cannot afford to meet obligations for both overdue rent and the rent normally due each month.       In such cases, which will now be many, tenants turn to the programs that usually provide rent assistance. But the programs expected to handle the crisis are routinely overwhelmed and poorly managed in normal times. Their funding streams usually run out by mid-year. (In one typical instance, a tenant told us via the TENAC hotline that it was necessary to speed dial 367 times, literally, to reach the ERAP tenant help program; she assured us she tallied accurately as she dialed).      To be sure, tenants and advocates are grateful for any emergency assistance and the measures already taken.  A closer look, however, reveals that the generosity is one-sided: the burden is placed solely on tenants.  We at TENAC call for 1.) meaningful assistance to prevent eviction of tenants in these times, and 2.) to require landlords to fairly share the burden of this crisis.       Unless the Council and mayor pass a fair plan, realistic and funded well enough to remedy the crisis, we will experience Depression-level homelessness.  A solution will involve large amounts of aid and sacrifices by all.      To the council and mayor, we say again emphatically, that landlords should shoulder their fair share of the burden and landlords should not be protected from having to do so.  After decades of displacing renters, receiving unwarranted tax breaks, building luxury housing that remains vacant while reaping millions, and making untold millions from land and property giveaways (which are really gifts disguised as help to revitalize the District), we believe the council should enact a tax on developers and large landlords to fund the assistance needed, and to also begin to redress the years of grievous imbalance.   To tenants, we say Expect mass evictions - OR organize for real assistance! Contact the Council and stay tuned for more on meetings, rallies, united efforts to lobby the council, and more.) List of DC City Counciimembers at: https://dccouncil.us/councilmembers/ D.C. TENANTS' ADVOCACY COALITION REPRESENTING ALL D.C. TENANTS P.O. BOX 7237 WASHINGTON, DC 20044 (202) 288-1921 NEW WEBSITE: www.tenacdc.org  E-MAIL: tenacdc@yahoo.com

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