Extra help urged for Hawaiʻi renters who face eviction due to COVID-19 pandemic

As bad as it is for renters now, it’s likely to get worse in the coming months and especially after the $600 federal boost to unemployment benefits expires at the end of July. The situation is prompting some to predict an avalanche of rental evictions.

That’s why more than 50 of Hawaiʻi’s nonprofits and social service agencies, and as many individuals, are urging state leaders to enact widespread protections for renters, including extending the prohibition on evictions for months after the pandemic is over in an effort to avoid mass evictions across the islands.

“Many people were in trouble even before the pandemic hit,” said Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. “The likelihood the problem is going to increase is significant.”

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that close to 20 percent of Hawaiʻi’s households have either been unable to pay their housing payment or have “slight or no confidence that their household can pay next month’s rent or mortgage on time.”

And, according to an analysis by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO) and the Hawaiʻi Budget and Policy Center (HBPC), between 40,000 and 45,000 renter households will be unemployed by July 31, will lose their $600 federal bump and will not be receiving other rental assistance.

Some 21,500 of these renter households will be at risk of losing their housing because the portion of their income earmarked for housing will rise by 10 percent or more, the analysis said, while 7,500 of these renter households will be at extreme risk of losing their housing because the portion of their income going to housing will jump by 30 percent or more.