Last week, I asked you to contact your federal delegation to urge them to act on desperately-needed COVID-19 relief to stop evictions and provide more rental assistance. Thank you for using your voice to advocate for our neighbors who are facing housing insecurity in the middle of winter, in the midst of the worst period of COVID-19 transmission we have seen.
Between November 9th and December 11th, there were 80 eviction hearings in Lancaster County alone. Eighty-one eviction hearings were scheduled just the first week of December in Douglas County.
Nicky Sullivan, with Habitat for Humanity Omaha, shares that so many of our community members, who strive to do the best they can for their families everyday, are struggling and need our support:
Due to the pandemic, many of our homeowners have had to open their homes to their adult children, elderly parents, and sick family members. Some of our 3 bedroom households have 9-13 people living there. They are making ends meet by cashing out 401K’s and taking penalties, depleting savings, taking out personal loans, maxing out credit cards, visiting food banks and borrowing from others.
They have had to make choices that NO human being should have to make:
Pay rent/mortgage or put food on the table? Pay the shut-off notice for the heat or pay for my elderly mother’s medication? Expose myself to COVID to get a paycheck or stay home with my children while all my bills pile up?
Most of these folks were already living check to check. To miss any work can be the catalyst for everything that they have worked so hard to maintain to be taken away. Things like housing, their good credit, and medical insurance. Our government needs to step in and assist us with stabilizing the financial ruin most of the community is facing.
The holes in our safety nets are wide open, but securing folks’ housing is a crucial step to stall the catalyst for loss that Nicky sees.
Let’s work together to ensure our neighbors can remain safe in their homes during a public health crisis.
One study predicts that as of November 23rd, as many as 77,000 renter households in Nebraska are at risk of eviction, with as many as 27,100 households facing eviction by January after the CDC eviction moratorium expires. On December 2nd, Governor Ricketts announced he is considering providing more state assistance if Congress does not authorize more COVID-19 relief.
Join us in calling upon Governor Ricketts’ to implement a moratorium and make more rental assistance available.
Another statewide eviction moratorium and more rental assistance will help to stave off a wave of evictions beginning in January as federal protections and funds expire at the end of December. Call Governor Ricketts’ office today at 402-566-5112 or by clicking the button below:
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Thank you for speaking up