WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Calling the protections unconstitutional, Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein has overturned legislation enacted by the City Council in May banning eviction filings during this pandemic. While his action doesn’t allow for the immediate eviction of struggling tenants, it does allow landlords to begin the process, and has paved the way for future challenges to the city’s ban on evictions; enacted in September to protect the vulnerable throughout our current crisis.
Now, there is couple of ways to look at this; the ruling gives landlords, not the corporate ones, but those smaller ones, who also may not be working and have no revenues coming in from rental properties, a small measure of recourse. As of now they can’t put people on the street, but they can put them on notice.
On the other side, if you’re a renter facing financial difficulties with no end in sight, you’re worried that evictions are coming.
It’s a rock and a hard place position for both sides. A position that neither should be in.
From the very beginning we’ve watched our government fumble with financial responses to this crisis. Ordinary citizens left to wonder where relief was going to come from while watching corporations and the politically plugged in receive millions in stimulus monies. Corporations we now know include mega-churches. Institutions which don’t even pay taxes. What this shows us is that the money is there, it’s just not making its way into the hands of the average citizen. Or small business owners, like landlords, also suffering with little to no financial relief coming their way.
As this pandemic drags on, worry and desperation can, and most likely will, begin to grow. Hopefully, the introduction of this vaccine will bring about some relief and peace of mind, but that may be months in the future. Until then, people shouldn’t have to be worried about being put out into the street. And business owners shouldn’t have to worry about keeping themselves solvent. Unfortunately for both, and the rest of us, we don’t seem to have political class willing to address our needs. The seeming necessity of the council’s protections, and this subsequent ruling, proving just that.