Last month the CDC enacted an eviction moratorium on the grounds that removing a mass amount of people from their homes would worsen the pandemic. While this may seem like it should be a relief to renters the pandemic has put at risk of eviction, by some estimates up to 40 million people, it is, as Emily Benfer, visiting professor of law at Wake Forest University says, a “temporary and incomplete measure.”

The eviction moratorium does not forgive rent due or provide rental assistance and it continues to allow landlords to tack on late fees and other penalties for not paying rent. While better than nothing, it does little more than kick the ball down the road.  When it expires in December, America will still have to reckon with the greatest housing crisis in our nation’s history.

It is also not a blanket measure; renters seeking protection from eviction need to fill out an application (click here) and deliver it to their landlord. They are also required to prove that they are doing their best to make payments. 

Tenants have to declare under threat of perjury that:

• They cannot pay their full rent due to a “substantial loss of household income, loss of compensable hours of work or wages, lay-offs, or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses.”
• They  have used best efforts to obtain all available government  rent assistance.
• They expect to earn no more than $99,000 this year or $198,000 if they file a joint income tax return.
• They are “using best efforts” to make partial rent payments.
• They would likely become homeless, move into a shelter or “into a new residence shared by other people who live in close quarters” if they were evicted.

And the eviction moratorium isn’t stopping evictions completely. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, 727 eviction actions were filed through Wednesday. Legal experts that many tenants don’t even know there is an eviction moratorium.

In addition to providing no rental assistance to tenants, it offers no aid to landlords who still have to pay mortgages. There are currently two large lawsuits including suits from The National Apartment Association and a group of landlords along with the New Civil Liberties Alliance against the CDC and Trump administration that seek to roll back the current moratorium.

These are extraordinary and desperate times and they deserve appropriately expansive legislation to address the scope of the issues. This moratorium is entirely inadequate. Congress needs to pass a comprehensive stimulus package that directly addresses these issues and provides rental assistance before the economy is dragged down any further.

Yours in Strength,

The Take Back Control Team

With fall comes the start of a new semester for college students; football games, tailgates, lecture halls, and student housing. Any other year these places and events are met with anticipation, but this year they bring the possibility of infection. 

 

Just weeks into the new semester colleges have produced 88K cases of Coronavirus. As cases skyrocket on college campuses, the surrounding towns and cities also feel the impact. Of the 25 emerging Coronavirus hotspots across the United States, 19 of them are occupied heavily by college students. 

 

The increase in cases on college campuses has caused many universities to shut down in person instruction all together, transitioning to a remote learning model. When a college is shut down, those students are forced to go home, often to a house that has older people and who are more at risk for contracting the virus and getting seriously ill from it. Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci both insist that staying on campus and quarantining there is a better option than sending students home. Dr. Birx stated “It’s really important that these students are continuously tested, isolated and cared for and don’t return to their multi-generational households where they could dramatically increase spread,” 

 

But what happens when universities aren’t equipped to deal with quarantining and caring for hundreds, if not thousands of students? This exact situation is playing out all across the country from NYU to U Michigan. Students at NYU went viral on TikTok for exposing their NYU provided quarantine meals. A lot of students who requested vegetarian meals were receiving meals with meat and some students went 24 hours without receiving any food at all. Sam Burnstein turned to TikTok to explain his quarantine situation at the University of Michigan after testing positive for COVID-19 “We were given almost no supplies; no food, no masks, no gloves, no microwave, no bed sheets, no soap, no cleaning supplies–nothing”. 

 

President Trump has encouraged schools to open across the country, including higher education. He even publicly denounced Harvard’s plan for remote learning saying “I think it’s ridiculous, I think it’s an easy way out and I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves.” With no set of guidelines put out by the Federal government on how to reopen safely, many universities have been unable to deal with consequences of in person classes during the pandemic.

 

Colleges have shown that they are not equipped to deal with this crisis. Is it responsible to hold in person classes with the potential of on and off campus events becoming super spreader events? 

 

Yours in Strength,

The Take Back Control Team

 

As record numbers of people filed for unemployment and the country began to slowly shut down, congress passed the CARES Act, a bipartisan bill to provide relief to the American people. Included in the bill was a $600 a week unemployment expansion that also allowed workers typically not eligible to collect unemployment to receive benefits.

 

Since the passing of the bill the unemployment expansion has become a point of contention between Democrats and Republicans, as well as frontline workers envious of their unemployed counterparts. Some people, including prominent politicians, claim that the additional $600 a week is too generous and it disincentives employees from going back to work. This claim has been proven to be false. A study from a group of Yale University economists showed that workers receiving the extended benefits have been returning to the workforce at the same rate as workers not receiving the additional $600 a week.

 

The fact of the matter is that people aren’t staying home because they’re lazy or don’t want to work, they’re staying home because they can’t find a job.  The employment opportunities aren’t even close to being back at pre-pandemic levels and much of the employment available is high risk. While the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.4% from its peak of 14.7% during April, we’ve still only recovered less than half of the jobs lost in March and April. Furthermore, the August jobs report shows that the number of permanent job losses increased by 534,000 in August, totaling 3.4 million since the start of the pandemic. The shift from temporary lay-offs to permanent job losses are leaving millions of Americans unemployed and likely unable to collect additional unemployment benefits due to Congress’ inaction.

 

The notion that the $600 a week is too generous exposes an even deeper problem; low wages that have become stagnant are now the norm. The national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, making the monthly wage of a full time employee $1,160 a month, before taxes. The average rent cost in the United States is $1,012, meaning that a full-time employee making minimum wage cannot even afford their rent, let alone other expenses. According to the AFL-CIO, if the federal minimum wage had been adjusted for workers’ productivity since 1968, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage would be $18.67. Due to inflation the federal minimum wage is worth 31% less than it was worth in 1968.

 

Instead of insisting that $600 a week is too generous to give hard working Americans being impacted by a pandemic we need to ask ourselves, and our elected officials, why we think it’s acceptable to pay people a wage that doesn’t allow them to support themselves, let alone a family.

 

Congress remains in a stalemate over the second stimulus. With many economists arguing that the economy needs it to survive, now is not the time to hold out on the American public. Many studies show that the 600/wk unemployment expansion boosted the economy, with spending increasing by $2 for every dollar given in unemployment aid. Months after $500 billion in corporate bailouts, why is the federal government so hesitant to help families in need but so quick to pull the trigger to keep billion-dollar businesses afloat?

 

Senator Lindsey Graham vehemently denied that the $600 a week would be included in a second stimulus bill, saying “I promise you over our dead bodies will this get reauthorized”. With Senator Graham making a comfortable $174K a year, it begs the question, whose dead bodies are we talking about? The 190K Americans who have already lost their lives to the virus, or the 13.9 million Americans who will stop receiving benefits in 2021 and possibly be forced into poverty?

 

Yours in Strength,

The Take Back Control Team

*DISINFORMATION ALERT: Early yesterday morning, President Trump retweeted a post from a QAnon-related twitter account that took CDC data out of context to make a false claim regarding the COVID-19 death toll.

 

Here is what the data really means. As of August 22:

• 9,210 Americans who had no exacerbating or underlying conditions died of COVID-19.
• 152,182 people with underlying conditions died BECAUSE THEY CONTRACTED COVID-19. 

From the beginning of this pandemic it has been well understood that people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart problems, asthma, auto-immune diseases, and more are at greater risk of contracting and dying form COVID-19 than young, healthy people. When a person with one of these conditions contracts COVID-19 and dies from COVID-19 complications, claiming they did not die from COVID-19 is not only false and dangerous, it is disrespectful to the loved ones of those who have died.   

 

 

FDA Commissioner Willing to Prematurely Approve COVID-19 Vaccine

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25Q0G7?__twitter_impression=true

The FDA commissioner says he is willing to approve a vaccine before Phase Three clinical trials are complete.

 

A Double Dip Recession

https://www.businessinsider.com/economists-chance-double-dip-coronavirus-recession-gdp-slump-nabe-survey-2020-8

Economists see at least 25% chance of double-dip recession and many don’t expect the GDP to rebound until at least 2022

 

Consumer Confidence Increase Despite Stalemate Over Second Stimulus

https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/08/27/consumer-confidence-increases-as-americans-await-expanded-unemployment-benefits/#3c07d185dced 

All though many jobs losses during the pandemic have become permanent and congress remains in a stalemate over a second stimulus, consumer confidence increases across the country.

 

Economic Recovery Hampered by Powerhouse States Struggling

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-covid-states/u-s-economic-recovery-hampered-by-wobbly-performance-in-powerhouse-states-idUSKBN25O1C1

US economic recovery is hampered by powerhouse states struggling. States like New York have successfully flattened the curve but struggle with an above average unemployment rate. These 4 states account for 35% of the economic output in the country.

 

Hong Kong Reports First Official COVID-19 Reinfection

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/hong-kong-reports-first-coronavirus-re-infection-in-it-worker

Hong Kong has confirmed the first case in which a man previously infected with COVID-19 recovered, then was re-infected a few months later

 

Nevada Reports First Confirmed Case in the US of COVID-19 Reinfection

https://www.newsweek.com/nevada-man-first-person-us-catch-coronavirus-twice-1528219

A Nevada man is the first person in the US confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 twice. He tested positive in mid April, tested negative in May, and then became sick and tested positive again at the beginning of June.

 

Midwestern States Set To Become New Hotspots

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25N2D9

As national numbers decline, midwestern states have a record high number of cases, creating emerging hot spots. 

 

Surge of Infections in Reopened College Campuses

https://apnews.com/9d36c40584bc1c9730654b589f672f79

Colleges that have reopened campuses for in-person classes are experiencing a surge of infections. Iowa, Utah, North Carolina, and Alabama have all experienced major campus outbreaks and many college towns have either passed mask ordinances, shut down bars, or placed limits on crowd sizes at events.

 

• https://apnews.com/d34a1513c4c956441bcbedcc320980cf Kansas has set a new 7-day record for an increase in COVID cases.
• https://apnews.com/5f6ba4c991049a050499991386776095 Arkansas is seeing a surge and outbreaks on college campuses.

 

States have been begging the federal government for additional funding to combat COVID-19 and support critical infrastructure during this unprecedented recession. Although the HEROES Act included funding for the beleaguered states, the HEALS Act has no such mandate and Republicans have continuously voiced their opposition to additional aid for states. Mitch McConnell went so far as to suggest states should go bankrupt. Apart from the fact states cannot legally declare bankruptcy, there are two main reasons that this suggestion is nonsensical:  

 

1. It would signal to the rest of the world that the US is in dire straits and truly spiraling in a way that would never have previously been thought possible.  Our standing on the world stage, already in tatters, would be completely diminished. 

 

2. It would make it that much more difficult for the country as a whole to rebound from the recession. 

 

As the US sinks deeper and deeper into what promises to be a long and bleak economic downturn, states have been left on their own to try to fight and contain COVID-19 with limited resources and success. Borders are not physical. A virus overwhelming one state will spread to others.

 

But since federal help is not forthcoming, states are instead forced to slash their budgets and make cuts to essential programs and employees.

 

What’s on the chopping block?  Education, public employees like teachers and firefighters, important infrastructure maintenance. All highly important sectors that are also important job providers. 

 

Most states have money saved for tough times, but again, this is not just a tough time–it is a worldwide pandemic, a historic and life altering event that demands a coordinated and comprehensive response that is currently lacking.

 

States rely on income taxes and sales taxes, both of which have been devastated by the pandemic and resulting unemployment.  Nevada and Hawaii have had their tourism industries wiped out. “Responding to this crisis has created a multiyear budget crisis unlike anything the state has ever faced before, more than three times worse than the Great Recession,” says Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.  Maryland has had to cut $190 million from higher education so far.  States are reporting that they expect their tax revenues to decline up to 35% over the next year. This is much worse than the recession of 2008 which saw an average decline of 12.5% across state budgets.

 

The United States needs explicit and comprehensive guidance from the federal government during a time of national crisis–and this is an unprecedented, and literally viral, national crisis. At the very least, the federal government should be doing its best to provide states with adequate supplies and funding in an effort to help the overall economy. “We know that helping state and local governments is one of the most efficacious ways to support the economy in a downturn. For each dollar spent by state and local governments, the economy sees an estimated benefit of $1.34. In other words, the economy sees an immediate 34% return on the dollar, and this bang for the buck is among the highest of any policy step lawmakers can take,” says Mark Zandy, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. It seems that as long as the stock market is doing well, Republicans are unconcerned with the well being of the rest of the country.

 

Yours in Strength,

The Take Back Control Team