Last Sunday, The Sentinel-Record published the article "Community rallies with relief for tenants who face eviction," which included interviews with me and United Way's executive director, Sarah Fowler. We are blessed to have collaborative relationships with those in both the private and public sectors to address the eviction crisis, and I'd like to address other aspects of this current situation.
As I said in the interview, eviction is a symptom, but poverty is the virus. Generational poverty is the issue we deal with most often at CCMC, however, the pandemic has created a great deal of situational poverty. People who never dreamed they'd be in danger of eviction have found themselves teetering on the edge of collapse, facing the very real possibility that they might soon be homeless as the eviction moratorium ends. But there is another aspect to this crisis that cannot be lost in how our community addresses the current reality, and that is the impact of rent nonpayment to landlords.
In our community, most landlords own rental houses as a source of income. Many also must pay mortgages on these properties, which means that when the rent stopped, so did their incomes and their ability to pay mortgages, property upkeep, insurance, taxes, and other expenses. Eviction costs everyone: renters, property owners, and ultimately, all of us. The expected levels of evictions that have been happening and will continue, is both a humanitarian and economic crisis.
There is another issue regarding the pandemic and eviction that has compounded the situation, and that is with the Emergency Rental Assistance program. This fund, established by the federal government, set aside billions of dollars, but remains largely unspent at this critical juncture. The reasons are complicated. Onerous applications for renters, reluctance by landlords to participate, and state and local governments trying to navigate through ever-changing guidelines and circumstances.
People facing eviction don't always have formal leases. Many sublease with friends or rent rooms, meaning they cannot qualify for assistance. Many landlords, when they learned of the lengthy response time of the program, decided against participating in these relief programs. Finally, there is the very real challenge of affordable, adequate housing that pushes families to the brink. To be blunt, we have a housing shortage in our community -- an affordable housing shortage.
The pandemic laid bare the fragility of not only those already in poverty, but those who were barely getting by. They lost jobs, work hours, became sick, had no ability to go back to work if a job came open because affordable child care was unavailable or their children were quarantined and had to learn remotely. COVID-19 has magnified what CCMC and so many organizations and agencies already knew: the working poor were barely getting by, the middle class faced new challenges when the economy tanked, and those who rent properties found themselves in the very difficult position of looking at the impact of back-rent to their own financial obligations.
Eviction is a symptom. Poverty -- both generational and situational -- is the virus that the pandemic amplified and exacerbated. Hot Springs is fortunate to have nonprofits, private sector, and city government officials working alongside one another in their commitment to respond to the needs of all our neighbors.
Kim Carter is the executive director of Cooperative Christians Ministries and Clinic.