COVID-19 Virus: Ohio Needs an Eviction Moratorium & Homelessness Prevention Resources—Have Your Organization Sign The Letter!
Eviction is a public health crisis during the COVID-19 outbreak
We are asking for your organization to take action to protect our community during the COVID-19 outbreak. This public health crisis will place housing insecure people at unique risk across Ohio. The elderly, the sick, and those with compromised immune systems are the most vulnerable.
We are asking you to add your organization name to this letter to Governor Mike DeWine to urge him to use his emergency powers to protect housing insecure Ohioans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of these people are low-income working class Ohioans and others are living below the poverty line are facing a loss of income due to the protective measures we are taking as a country to minimize the threat of the virus outbreak. This makes it harder to pay for already unaffordable rent. Without the guarantee of secure housing during this critical time, the most vulnerable Ohians will be unable to mitigate the threat of COVID-19.
Across Ohio, many cannot afford rent and COVID-19 will add extreme strain to that burden. A recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition reported that there are 455,993 extremely low-income renter households in Ohio. The homeless system is already at capacity in many cities across Ohio. For example, every shelter is Cuyahoga County is full and struggling to keep the people residing there safe from the outbreak. We are worried that COVID-19 could start to spread more rapidly among those who are and/or become homeless.
The letter is urging the Governor to: 1) Ban the enforcement of all eviction judgments by stopping court-ordered move-outs, including those that were scheduled before COVID-19 caused larger social disruption, 2) Ban utility disconnections and automatically turn on any utilities disconnected in the last 60 days and, 3) issue emergency eviction prevention and homeless prevention dollars across the state.
Over the last week, some of these measures have already been implemented across the United States, in places such as San Jose, California, Miami-Dade County in Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia. We need organizations throughout the state to encourage Governor DeWine to continue his strong leadership so that all Ohioans are safe and stable during this serious global public health crisis.
By signing on, your organization agrees to be listed by name on the letter below. The letter will be sent to Governor Mike DeWine to urge him to use his emergency powers to protect housing insecure Ohioans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dear Governor DeWine,
We want to begin this letter by thanking you for your extraordinary leadership in recent days. The work of your office along with the work of Director of Public Health Dr. Amy Acton has been swift, decisive, and will ultimately save lives over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak.
We are writing now because we believe simple, comparably small measures, must be taken now to complement the efforts already made by your office to protect vulnerable Ohioians. Namely, using the Governor’s emergency powers, the state of Ohio should:
Ban enforcement of all eviction judgments by stopping court-ordered move-outs, including those that were scheduled before COVID-19 caused larger social disruption.
Ban utility disconnections and automatically turn on any utilities disconnected in the last 60 days
Issue emergency homelessness prevention dollars across the state in partnership with local non-profits that are able to efficiently disperse to at-risk households.
Both actions are necessary for the health and welfare of Ohioans and support our existing work towards social distancing and community health. Enforcing an eviction move-out will put an Ohio family onto the streets. Re-housing families is already hard, but it will only be harder as social distancing and our slowed economy make finding and moving into a new rental harder. An evicted family will be more likely than ever to enter the shelter system, which we know is already a point of strain in our management of COVID-19. For the moment, our best chance to keep families healthy is keep them where they are for the course of the outbreak. Across the state, every shelter system is at capacity and it is imperative that we prevent overcrowding in congregate settings while we manage the spread of COVID-19.
Similarly, banning utility disconnections and re-instituting recent disconnections will keep our families from being constructively evicted from their homes because of lack of utility service. Utility disconnection will cause the same likelihood of strain on the shelter system.
Under the first two provisions, the money owed will not change. Rent and/or utility payments can continue to accrue and can be collected at a future date. We recognize that there may come a time where mortgage or rental payments might be suspended nationally, but stopping the physical movement and/or the physical disconnection of utility services can be taken at the state level without affecting the underlying amounts owed. In addition, once the short term crisis is addressed, we would advocate for any and all measures from the Statehouse to support tenants and homeowners with rent and mortgage payments that have accrued during COVID-19 related work stoppages.
Eviction and utility disconnection moratoriums have already been implemented in San Jose, California, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia. We believe the number of localities considering these measures will grow in the coming days. Ohio has already been a step ahead of other states and we believe it should be a step ahead in this measure as well.
Thank you again for your time, consideration, and for your efforts during this time.
Signed,