We have two posts from a guest writer, Terrell A. Williams, being published today. This is the second post. The first can be found here. You may recognize Mr. Williams’ name, as he ran in the Democratic Primary election in 2020 against Senator Bruce Ennis in the 14th Senate District.
All Delawareans — regardless of their circumstances or background — should have safe and stable housing.
As the proverbial end of Covid-19 is winding down, many of the safeguards that ensure families safe and stable housing are evaporating. The end of the pandemic should not mean the end of our humanity or some of the executive orders put in place to ensure families are properly housed. The public health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have cost millions of people their jobs and the ability to pay rent — leaving far too many renters facing the added threat of eviction and losing their homes. This fact remains very true for the thousands of Delawareans across our state. By July 31st, many of the Delawareans benefitting from the moratorium on evictions in our state, will be left susceptible to evictions and unstable housing. Delaware needs to have help in place to ensure tenants can remain housed, both now and in the future.
COVID-19 pandemic have cost thousands of Delawareans their jobs and the ability to pay rent — leaving far too many renters facing the added threat of eviction and losing their homes.
Now is the time for Gov. Carney to act and stop the onslaught of evictions that will soon consume our local magistrates. I am demanding that Gov. Carney recalls the state legislature from recess to address this very specific and serious issue. There is no need to end one crisis (Covid-19) and return to another crisis (fair housing). We have mechanisms in place to ensure that most landlord can be paid for missed rent payments during the pandemic. However, many landlords are electing not to participate in the programs, where stimulus money could be used to pay rent. In many cases, some of these landlords are seeking to evict their tenants instead. This isn’t surprising considering many tenants are facing eviction because of unforeseen circumstances or financial stress that prevents them from being able to afford their rent, let alone counsel to represent them in court. Others facing eviction lack the ability to go to court due to employment, childcare, or transportation restrictions. Evictions are a racial justice, gender justice, and human rights issue. Now is the time for time for Delaware to address housing issues, it is now time to replace the band-aids with more substantive long-term solutions.
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