BY CREIGHTON LEWIS
STAFF WRITER
The novel coronavirus has changed everything. It’s made us more reluctant to visit public places, has prevented us from going to school this year, and it’s even gotten people kicked out of their homes.
When people rent a house or an apartment, they have to pay their landlord a specific amount in order to ensure they have a place to stay. To have money, you need to have a job, but because of the pandemic, people have been unable to work, threatening their residence as a result. Depending on the rent amount, how much money someone has in savings, and whether someone has family members they can call and have a place to stay with, this can mean a temporary setback, or a one-way kick to the street. At a time where public health officials agree it’s best to be social distancing, doing so in a homeless shelter is going to be nearly impossible. The structures simply weren’t made with pandemics in mind. People are packed closely together, coming from different places and situations- it’s literally an infection waiting to happen.
Many people don’t know this, but after someone is evicted, there’s a permanent x on their record as a tenant. Wherever they try to go, the landlord will see this x and determine whether they think an individual is responsible enough to pay all of their rent on time. It makes it more difficult for people who are already desperate to find housing a place to stay.
Finally, moratoriums are defined as “delays in the activity of a law.” When someone agrees to pay the rent each month, they have to sign a legal document, but the moratorium blocks this document due to the current circumstance of being unemployed. Hopefully, all states’ legislatures will pass a moratorium that lasts as long as possible and makes sure all citizens have the ability to breathe, rather than suffocate from the growing amount of debt.