Across American Cities, Evictions Are Down
Below-average evictions during the pandemic suggest a housing crisis might look different than a projected “tsunami.”
Cathryn Virginia
When Disney World shut down on March 15, Adrien Love realized he was in trouble. Many of the tenants living in his Orlando-area rental properties are waitresses and hairdressers, people whose livelihood flows from entertainment and tourism. With the House of Mouse closed for business, keeping up with collections was going to be a problem.
In April, Love says most of his tenants couldn’t get unemployment benefits because the state website kept crashing. Several came to him then to say they needed to make an arrangement. Love says that he is sympathetic to their predicament — he is a former bartender himself — so he obliged. But spotty communication with a few renters made him nervous.