KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's nationwide ban on evictions is set to expire Dec. 31, which means a lot of people could be looking for a new place to live amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in the heart of winter.
Kansas City won't be immune from the eviction crisis, which could lead to a spike in homelessness after Jan. 1, 2021.
"The landlords will be able to start their eviction processes, which many will turn around within a week or two," Shay Torok, assistant director at Redemptorist Social Services Center, said. "You'll go from 6,000 people we have homeless just in the state of Missouri to who knows. It’s scary to even think."
Redemptorist Social Services Center has seen a significant spike in the number of people needing help to afford food, rent or mortgage payments, and utilities during the pandemic. The biggest expense and need is paying for housing.
The KCMO-based nonprofit has served 70,000 people since COVID-19 reached Kansas and Missouri in March. The agency worked with 15,000 people in all of 2019.
"Most of the clients that need a lot of the assistance are three, four, five months behind," Torok said. "At that point, it takes a joint effort to pay those large bills."
Often, people who call need $750 to $1,100 in rent or mortgage payments covered for a month and they call back multiple times.
Redemptorist works with other organizations to help as may people as they can, but those other organizations, like Redemptorist, are being inundated with calls.
Torok said the number of new online applications has been averaging roughly 30 to 50 per day in recent weeks. The agency has received some money from the CARES Act and Federal Emergency Management Agency in addition to private donations.
"I think ultimately it’s going to be everybody coming together," Torok said. "The government is going to have to get involved and put more dollar funding into that."
It's not just renters facing uncertainty as the foreclosure ban on federally-backed mortgages also ends at the end of the month.
"We don’t know which way we’re going as far as assistance with mortgage and lights, gas, telephone, what have you," a Kansas City-area homeowner who asked to remain anonymous said. "So, that’s why I contacted you guys."
The homeowner said she's trying not to lose her house, but she's gotten behind on the mortgage and it's hard for her to even ask for help. She was faced with some hardships before COVID-19, but the pandemic made it worse.
"We know it’s been a pandemic and the virus is affecting everyone’s life, 'Well, what are we doing now?" she said. "We can’t wait until January or another time. We need to pay our bills now."
If Congress, which has stalled on stimulus talks after a second emergency bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives two months ago, doesn't act before Jan. 1 there will be a lot of people teetering on the brink of homelessness.
