The Reality of Como’s Eviction Crisis
In the wake of an unprecedented eviction crisis, many cities and states across the country have implemented eviction moratoria. But despite these efforts to protect tenants from eviction, the situation is not improving.
The eviction crisis has caused widespread suffering in neighborhoods throughout the city. It has led to a host of social, economic, and health consequences for thousands of families, including increasing rent costs, decreasing credit access, and compromising family stability.
It has also had a severe impact on the lives of children, negatively affecting their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being and increasing the likelihood of mental illness, suicide, and increased emergency room usage. And it has pushed some households out of their homes and into the streets, contributing to a growing homeless crisis in New York.
The Human Cost of Development: The Reality of Como’s Eviction Crisis
Among the millions of people who have been threatened with evictions in New York, few can afford to pay for legal help. Instead, they are relying on a complex web of executive orders and court system guidance to protect themselves from eviction.
But while these protections have stopped the evictions machine, they are not solving the underlying issue: the housing market is broken and a crisis is brewing. As a result, the eviction crisis is likely to spread like wildfire in coming years, causing untold harm to families.
One of the most effective solutions to the eviction crisis has been a right-to-counsel law passed in 2017. This law requires landlords to give tenants at least 15 days notice before filing an eviction, and allows them to meet with tenants’ attorneys to try to resolve their dispute.
While these protections have stopped evictions in a significant number of cities, some communities face a looming threat to the right-to-counsel laws. In a recent Associated Press analysis, the nonprofit Eviction Lab estimated that if current eviction protections were lifted, hundreds of thousands of families could be sued by their landlords for eviction.
This eviction crisis threatens to undermine the hard-won gains Asia has made in human development. The crisis will erode the region’s ability to deliver on its commitments to poverty alleviation and basic services, and could jeopardize the future success of Asian nations.
The most important reason for this is that a prolonged crisis would damage the capacity of Asia’s institutions for poverty alleviation and service delivery. These institutions depend on real salaries to function properly, and a sustained fall in those wages will undermine their performance.
It is a critical moment to reassess our notion of development. We have to move away from “growth-first” and instead focus on a notion that puts people at the heart of our efforts to improve the world. This is a vision of development that is rooted in the productive relations of capitalism and shaped by class struggle.