New state program would give $500 a month for rent

New pessimism over the the economy has experts now saying thousands more people could face eviction this year. A nonprofit that focuses on affordable housing for state residents estimates 50,000 to 60,000 renters are now affected by unemployment, and that puts their housing situation at risk.and that puts their housing situation at risk.

Waikīkī renter Maddison Moliga is one of them. “I will be homeless because I won’t be able to pay my rent,” she says about her worst nightmare.

Now, laid off from her job as a server at The Cheesecake Factory, she’s relying on government help. “I get $285 a week from unemployment insurance and the extra $600 a week from the CARES Act,” she shares.

She was homeless once before. “I would constantly be moving around making makeshift houses,” she tells me about that horrible experience, hoping never to repeat it. Moliga is one of an estimated tens of thousands of renters housing advocates like Kenna StormoGipson worry about.

StormoGipson is a policy and data analyst at Hawaiʻi Budget and Policy Center, a research arm of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. “A whole bunch of folks after July 31 are going to have a real reduction in their unemployment benefits. When that happens, they’re not going to be able to pay their bills like they used to,” she warns.

The $600 weekly federal boost to unemployment benefits ends on July 31. The federal Paycheck Protection Program ends on August 8, which could mean layoffs or furloughs. “They’re just not going to be able to pay rent and groceries, gas, living expenses, when next month they’re getting a much lower unemployment check,” predicts StormoGipson