BIDS' Tim Thomas, Research Director of the Urban Displacement Project at UC Berkeley, was recently featured in this KQED interview entitled Evictions, Moratoriums and Rent Relief, which aired live from San Francisco, CA, on November 13, 2021, as a preview of the upcoming season of the SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America podcast series. Listen now:
The interview was hosted by KQED's Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari, and also featured Anne Tamiko Omura, Executive Director of the Eviction Defense Center, and Krista Gulbransen, Executive Director of Berkeley Rental Housing Coalition. The group discussed racial disparities in evictions and housing, the recent eviction moratoriums, the struggles to get rent relief to those who need it most, and the intersection of property rights and the human right to housing.
The coronavirus pandemic has put millions of people at risk to lose their housing. As the economy halted, it became clear that many of the people who lost their jobs wouldn’t be able to pay rent, and would face eviction. The pandemic also initiated a national conversation about the connection between housing and health, because without a safe place to reside, and the ability to shelter safely in the face of the pandemic, many would become more exposed and more vulnerable to getting sick.
The federal response was unprecedented, with the announcement of an eviction moratorium, and many states like California and local governments here in the Bay Area went even further and passed stronger eviction protections. However some people were still left out, and as those protections expire, and the effects of the pandemic linger on, many more could face eviction again and be at risk.
The upcoming season of SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America will be investigating the current system of evictions. Evictions are not new, and they impact up to 3 million people a year in the U.S. As pandemic-related protections expire, a growing number of tenants, advocates, and political leaders are questioning the system of evictions and searching for ways to overhaul it and keep people housed.
Read the full article:
SOLD OUT LIVE: Evictions, Moratoriums and Rent Relief
November 29, 2021 | Molly Solomon, Erin Baldassari, Erika Kelly, Kyana Moghadam | KQED
