the *DON* JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED
	8/6/21… 14,296.17 7/30/21… 14,281.79 6/27/13… 15,000.00
*(THE DOW* JONES INDEX: 8/6/21…35,064.25; 7/30/21…35,084.53; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)**

LESSON for August 6, 2021 – HIT the ROAD, JACK!

Before Covid-19, evictions were a hot topic, declaimed a May issue of the Economist UK as cited the American publication of “Evicted”, a “rare wonk-bestseller by Matthew Desmond of Princeton University” which followed eight families turfed out of their homes in Milwaukee, their possessions unceremoniously dumped on the pavement. (Mr Desmond estimated that there were a million evictions a year in pre-plague America, a staggering number given the relatively small number of people affected - about 2.3m adults and children). Then, when covid-19 hit, an “experiment” took place. The Trump administration issued an edict pausing evictions, a policy continued by the Biden White House until, on May 5th a judge struck down the federal moratorium, apparently ending the experiment. What were the results?

The federal moratorium actually consisted of several policies spanning the Trump and Biden administrations. From March to August 2020 it was part of the Cares Act (See particulars here). From September it took the form of a directive from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was extended three times to end on June 30th this year. The CDC claimed authority on the ground that evicting people in the middle of an epidemic was a public-health risk. That seems to be true. From May to September 2020, 27 states lifted their eviction moratoriums. Comparing the trend before the pandemic to the trend in infection and deaths once the moratoriums were lifted, researchers estimate that states without moratoriums experienced covid-19 infection rates twice as high as states with them.

These same states were most likely not to have issued eviction moratoriums on their own, letting free enterprise have its say and the landlords have their day.

Fox News reports that only ten states had taken up the burden of eviction relief… all of them with higher vaccination and lower plague rates, all of them blue. (See Attachment One for list)

HOW DID we get to this point?

When it became apparent that many of the Covid jobs lost were not coming back… for a long time, if at all… President Trump and Congress declared a temporary moratorium on evictions, which was extended by the Biden administration to July 31^st.

After the CDC could not find legal grounds to extend a moratorium on evictions that began early in the coronavirus pandemic, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., began pushing the CDC to do it anyway, according to Fox News.

President Biden announced Thursday that he was not going to try to extend the moratorium, calling on Congress to take action instead. Waters, who unsuccessfully tried to pass a bill, expressed skepticism that the CDC could not extend the moratorium as they had done in the past.

"I don't buy that the CDC can't extend the eviction moratorium - something it has already done in the past!" Waters tweeted. "Who is going to stop them? Who is going to penalize them? There is no official ruling saying that they cannot extend this moratorium. C'mon CDC - have a heart! Just do it!"

Despite what Waters posted, there was an official ruling on this in May from U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who said the CDC acted outside the scope of its authority when it previously issued the moratorium. (See Attachment Two) That order was put on hold pending an appeal of the decision, and while the Supreme Court denied a request to vacate the stay on the ruling, it was only because it was already set to expire on July 31.

President Biden and the White House as of Monday morning didn't respond to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team calling on the executive branch to extend the federal eviction moratorium, as "Squad" Democrats continued to camp on the Capitol steps in protest of the inaction from their party. (Fox News)

“I wish that the president, (and) the C.D.C. would have gone forward and extended the moratorium,” Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview with The New York Times on Monday. “They have the power to do that. I think he should have gone in and he should have done it, and let the chips fall where they may.”

Ms. Waters echoed that sentiment in a letter to colleagues on Tuesday, assailing the Biden administration for its “refusal” to extend the moratorium and for a “last-minute punt to Congress.”

BEER, HERE!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), early in the coronavirus pandemic, had implemented an eviction moratorium that banned landlords from removing people who were behind on their rent – which provision was extended multiple times but finally ended Saturday night following a June opinion from Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that “clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation)” would be required. (See Attachment Three)

Fox News (Attachment Four) said that Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives were “livid” at their party leadership for allegedly not taking the eviction moratorium seriously. Sunday night marked their third night protesting lack of action by Biden and Democrats in Congress by camping out on the steps of the Capitol.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., says Democratic leadership could have extended the moratorium if it had the will to.

"Everybody knew this was coming," she said Friday at the protest. "We were sounding the alarm about this issue. The court order was not yesterday, the court order was not Monday, the court order was about a month ago."

Congress recoiled from this hot, rotten potato dumped back in its lap. Even big-city liberals paused and raised fingers to the wind… a lot of their re-election and off-the-books-perks derive from the real estate lobby. Open Secrets has noted that realtors raised $15,501,505 for PAC years 2019-2020 – shelling out 52.14% to Democrats, 47.79% to Republicans.

PAC Summary Data, 2019-2020

Total Raised $15,501,505

Total Spent $12,607,348

Begin Cash on Hand $8,205,291

End Cash on Hand Receipts $11,099,448

Debts $0

Independent Expenditures $2,992,290

Date of Last Report December 31, 2020

PAC Contribution Data, 2019-2020

Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)

52.14% to Democrats, 47.79% to Republicans $3,960,998

So they did what losers always do when faced with an overwhelmingly bad/worse choice… as Rep. Waters alleged: they punted.

The Supreme Court had upheld the CDC's moratorium, reversing a ruling from a federal appeals court June 29, but warned that a further extension of the ban beyond its July 31 deadline would exceed the agency's authority unless Congress passed a law to expand it. The House did not attempt to do so until Friday, two days before the ban lapsed and one day after Biden asked Congress to extend the CDC moratorium.

White House officials told The Hill on Monday that the agency was unable to justify even a narrowed extension of the ban to hard-hit areas given the court's decision.

"To date, the CDC director and her team have been unable to find legal authority, even for a more targeted eviction moratorium that would focus just on counties with higher rates of COVID spread," said Gene Sperling, Biden's economic recovery czar.

Homelessness, men and women of medicine mostly agree, is not conducive to good health. People freeze to death in winter, die of heatstroke in summer and are frequently targeted for beatings, or worse, by the police, by cruel teenagers and POTheads (followers of the Party of Trump who direct their anger downwards) out for kicks or, lets face it, each other.

Heightened rates of communicable disease, Covid or other, as well as suicide are endemic.

“What the pandemic is doing is it is upending all the structures and supports that we have in place to handle emotional unrest in a small number of people. Now we have a whole lot of people that are experiencing increased anxiety and depression all at once,” said Jonathan Singer in an interview with Courier. Singer is president of the American Association of Suicidology and associate professor of social work at Loyola University in Chicago. In separate interview with The Guardian UK, Singer also said the there could be a “dramatic increase in suicide deaths, or at least despair.”

Housing (or its absence) can also play a part in suicide. According to the National Health Care For The Homeless Council, a 2012 study found that suicide rates were 10 times higher for people experiencing homelessness than the general population.

The United States was already struggling with an affordable housing crisis before the pandemic hit. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University found, in 2016 there were well over 2 million eviction filings in the United States. Today, as millions of people are out of work and have no reliable source of income, rent is often taking a backseat to necessities like groceries and medicine. Without moratoriums on evictions, hundreds of thousands of families are in a precarious situation.

“Losing your home takes away an important protective factor and may lead to family splits. It increases suicide risk, no question about it,” said Steve Moore in another interview with The Guardian. Moore serves as the co-chair of the Illinois chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Nor has help from the forty refusenik states been forthcoming.

In Georgia, for example, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that renters who relied on the stop-gap pandemic measure were holding their breaths, too.

In DeKalb County, outside of Atlanta, 145 writs of eviction were already scheduled to be executed when Superior Court Judge Asha Jackson signed an emergency order Friday that created a local ban on evictions for another 60 days. Roughly 1,650 more are pending with the marshal’s office there. DeKalb officials blamed a cyberattack earlier this year for dramatically slowing distribution of federal rental assistance.

Other localities have not been so fortunate in finding excuses. Evictions are already queued up in Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton and other counties. Though many counties didn’t carry out tenant removals during the moratoriums, a lot of landlords and property managers already have court orders in hand that allow them to kick out some of those who are delinquent on rent. They are just waiting for law enforcement officers to carry out the orders.

Others have filed the legal paperwork required to evict tenants but are waiting for their day in court. Before hearings are scheduled, tenants have a week to respond. If they do, trial dates are set. But if they don’t — or if they lose at trial — they have a week to move out.

“These things scare me,” said Protip Biswas, vice president for homelessness at the United Way of Greater Atlanta, which has disbursed millions of dollars in rental assistance. “We really don’t know the scale of the emergency.”

An eviction can dog a tenant for years, crimping future choices, said Elora Raymond, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech who studies housing issues.

It can also have broader consequences for mental health, performance in school and birth weights, said Emily Lemmerman, a research specialist at the Eviction Lab.

Kathy Poland-Jones, 65, has a past eviction on her record, but managed to find a place in Canton. She lost her full-time job and took part-time work. But she hasn’t been able to keep up her payments. She got an eviction notice in June. “Nobody would rent to me before,” she said. “I have no idea where to go.”

Around the country, courts, legal advocates and law enforcement agencies are gearing up for evictions to return to pre-pandemic levels, a time when 3.7 million people were already being displaced from their homes every year… seven every minute, according to the Eviction Lab, as reported by the Associated Press (See Attachment Five), citing backlogs in St. Louis, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Landlords tired of waiting for federal rental assistance were in court hoping to evict their tenants, while families from Ohio to Virginia turned up before judges hoping for a last-minute reprieve. In Detroit, at least 600 tenants with court orders against them were at immediate risk.

“It’s very scary with the moratorium being over,” said Ted Phillips, a lawyer who leads the United Community Housing Coalition in Detroit.

"The thing I worry about the most is that you have millions of people across the country who may get evicted over the next couple of months, even though there is enough money coming from the federal government to pay all their back rent," Shamus Roller, who heads up the National Housing Law Project, told NPR.

No one knows for sure what the weeks ahead will bring. The coming evictions could be “a light sprinkle or a typhoon,” said Jim Lindenmayer, director of the Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Program.

The available numbers hinted that the weeks ahead would bring potential disaster: More than one of every five renters in Georgia is behind on rent payments, according to a survey by the Census Bureau. But how bad it will be comes down to a long list of variables — how fast courts will sift through backlogs of eviction filings, how many landlords are willing to negotiate, how efficient counties are at disbursing rental assistance, and how many members of Congress are willing to act on President Joe Biden’s call to reinstitute the temporary moratorium.

Those questions make it hard to prepare, Lindenmayer said.

Nearly 25% of renters are in arrears in Georgia, compared with just 6% in Idaho, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found.

The six counties with the highest of renters behind are all in South Carolina, and include Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Orangeburg, according to an analysis by Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit. As many as 1 in 3 renters may be behind in these places.

And generally, hardship rates are worse in the South.

There are a number of reasons for that, said Aaron Dibner-Dunlap, senior research scientist at Surgo Ventures.

“Before the pandemic, southern states also had relatively high eviction rates,” Dibner-Dunlap said. “So housing vulnerability has been a challenge in this region for a number of years.”

Another factor? “Most states in the South haven’t adopted Medicaid expansion, so you also see huge s of the population without adequate health care if they get sick,” he said. “Research consistently shows that large shocks in one area — like a huge medical expense — can send people into a financial tailspin.”

Meanwhile, in deep blue Northern states like Connecticut, landlords can’t move forward with an eviction unless they’ve applied for federal rental assistance. And if they file an eviction before October, they need to provide tenants with 30 days’ notice.

The rules can get complicated fast, and sometimes landlords ignore them.

As the plague worsened and spread internationally, some of the wealthier, more urbanized nations which had already been experiencing landlord-tenant strife for years had attempted turning to rent controls; increasingly popular, especially, in many European nations. Rent controls, CNBC explains (Attachment Six) are government policies, whether on local or a national level, that aim to cap house price increases and are becoming increasingly popular in many European nations, They are intended to keep housing affordable, at least for the most vulnerable parts of a population, but experts noted by the landlord lobby contend that they rarely solve housing crises on their own and can even scare investors away.

In Sweden, for example, rent controls effectively toppled the government there. The nationalist Sweden Democrats had seized the chance to call the vote after the formerly communist Left Party withdrew support for the centre-left government over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments; a no-confidence motion, which required 175 votes in the 349-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 181 lawmakers. (Reuters, 6/21/21)

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s “shaky” minority coalition with the Green Party had relied on support in parliament from two small centre-right parties and the Left Party since a tight election in the European Union member state in 2018, according to Reuters.

The Left Party blamed Lofven for triggering the crisis.

“It is not the Left Party that has given up on the Social Democrat government, it is the Social Democrat government that has given up on the Left Party and the Swedish people,” Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar said.

With parliament deadlocked, it is not clear to whom the speaker might turn to form a new government if Lofven resigns. Opinion polls suggest the centre-left and centre-right blocs are evenly balanced, so a snap election might not bring clarity either.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K. and Ireland have all had similar discussions about their property markets as also, driven by the pandemic (if not the Olympics), Japan.

Speaking about lofty prices in the Netherlands, Nic Vrieselaar, a senior economist at RaboResearch, told CNBC that the market is “becoming unacceptable.” “This is a matter of supply-demand due to the low interest rate environment,” he said.

Between 2010 and the first quarter of 2021, rents increased by 15.3% in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

Separate data gathered by Europe’s statistics office showed that, in 2020, the estimated average rent levels for apartments was the highest in Dublin, followed by Copenhagen, then Paris, Luxembourg and Stockholm.

Colm Lauder, head of real estate at investment bank Goodbody, told CNBC that he expects rental prices to keep rising. He said: “In Ireland, we are concerned that [rent] controls will stop capital coming through.”

A vicious cycle

Property investors see a significant downside in rent controls in that they cap returns. In the case of Ireland, rent increases in certain areas are limited at 4% per year.

“If they can’t get [returns] then they will look elsewhere,” Lauder said.

CNBC cites an age-old trend of people flocking to urban areas where there’s more jobs and higher salaries. But, at a time of low interest rates from central banks — which European nations have experienced in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis — and help-to-buy schemes, more people have bought property, either as a first home or as an investment to let. This demand, according to CNBC, then pushes up prices given the limited housing stock on the market.

There is another, simpler explanation… greed.

“Rent seeking” (see below) has long been the bane of “civilized” (i.e. the Westernized, white… plus Japan, maybe Taiwan and Korea… nations) society. After all, it’s hard to go to work every day, deal with your own personal Bezos, fall asleep, struggle up and do it all over and over again for a lifetime than it is to sit back, sip a cool cocktail and rake in the fruits of other people’s labor all for yourself. That is, unless the system corrodes, buckles and (with a little help from the plague) collapses entirely.

Rent Seeking: noun

the fact or practice of manipulating public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits.

"cronyism and rent-seeking have become an integral part of the way our biggest companies do business"

adjective

engaging in or involving the manipulation of public policy or economic conditions as a strategy for increasing profits.

"rent-seeking lobbyists"

Definitions from Oxford Languages

In Germany, the issue of rents outpacing wages was subject to a year-long legal battle. Barbara Steenbergen, a member of the International Union of Tenants and former lawmaker for the German region of Cologne, told CNBC: “We are of course pro rent controls if it’s part of a comprehensive housing package.”

She highlighted how important rent controls are for low and middle-income families, noting that in Berlin, for example, rent increases have gone up exponentially, but salaries have not.

This divide is a “threat to social peace,” she said.

Still, Lauder, head of real estate at investment bank Goodbody, told CNBC that he expects rental prices to keep rising. He said: “In Ireland, we are concerned that [rent] controls will stop capital coming through.”

For the rent-seekers, the trains always arrive on time.

Does a win-win solution exist? Of course it does. Most landlords and many renters advocate direct government subsidies minus new construction and management – just cash payments to the tenants. Cold hard cash, paid for… or not… by the usual suspects, by the usual means…

In effect, taxing the working and middle classes to subsidize the poor to pay market rents to the rich.

What could go wrong with that?

Due to widespread job loss and the health risks of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vox explains, many renters in the US faced difficulty making their rent payments every month when the pandemic began in early 2020, and the federal government stepped in to prevent people from getting evicted in the midst of it. As part of this response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted a moratorium in September 2020 that prevented landlords from evicting their tenants regardless of whether they could pay their monthly rent in full or at all.

By last month the moratorium was already on borrowed time, as the Supreme Court had warned that it would not extend the renter protection past the end of July. Five justices including Justice Brett Kavanaugh supported this. “In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31,” wrote Kavanaugh.

An August second press release by President Joe, delivered to hungry media teeth and stomachs by Jen Psaki offloaded the blame onto the locals.

“State and local governments received Emergency Rental Assistance—a $46.5 billion plan to protect millions of Americans facing deep rental debt and potential eviction during the pandemic – via the American Rescue Plan that Congress and the Biden Administration enacted in March 2021. Some cities and States have demonstrated their ability to release these funds efficiently to tenants and landlords in need. But even though funds began to be distributed in February by the Biden Administration, too many States and cities have been too slow to act,” Jen and Joe pointed fingers towards the Capitol.

“States and cities have been slow to distribute the $45 billion in federal rental assistance allocated by Congress,” broadcast Annie Nova of CNBC. “Those funds were authorized in the last two major coronavirus stimulus packages, passed in December and March, and yet just $3 billion has reached households, according to data by the U.S. Treasury.”

"The American Rescue Plan allocated an additional $21.5 billion for Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) that can be used by renters to cover arrears and make landlords whole. This is on top of $25 billion allocated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act," a White House press release referred to by Fox said last month. "But state and local governments must do better. Money is available in every state to help renters who are behind on rent and at risk of eviction."

None of that money, for example, trickled down to a homeless man named Melvin Douglas who, on a sweltering July afternoon biked up to his sleeping spot beneath the High Line, the elevated, art-filled New York park overlooking the Hudson River, and found that a city cleanup crew had thrown away his possessions — again. The same thing had happened the day before. (New York Times, 8/2/21 Attachment Seven)

One homeless book vendor, Michael Jones, told a Timestravelling correspondent that “the city crews had served a purpose.”

“You had people building shanty towns near the scaffolding and terrorizing people,” he said. “At the end of the day, people were messing up a good hustle.”

Help was supposed to be on the way. Congress set aside nearly $50 billion to help families like hers pay the back rent they owe and avoid eviction. But that money flowed to states and counties, which created hundreds of different programs to distribute it. And many so far have managed to get just a small fraction of the money to the people who need it.

In the matter of Safiya Kitwana of suburban Atlanta, she applied for the help and she was approved. (NPR 8/2/21)

But DeKalb County officials worried they might run out of that federal money because so many people needed help. So to try to spread the money around, they made a rule — the county would pay landlords only 60% of what renters owed. And to get that, landlords had to agree to forgive the remainder of the debt or split the difference with the renter and drop the eviction case.

But, as NPR previously reported, some landlords like Kitwana's said that wasn't enough money and moved ahead with the eviction process. There is also a provision of the law requiring Renters to pay any missed payments, and in some states the landlord is owed late fees for any late payment since the moratorium was enacted. Utilities are a bit of a gray area, Vox reported, “but generally if the landlord is responsible for paying for a certain utility, in most cases they are not permitted to turn it off.”

The false promises have been ubiquitous, resulting in real consequences.

The Biden administration had hoped that historic amounts of rental assistance allocated by Congress would help avert a crisis. But the distribution has been painfully slow: Only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion had been distributed through June by states and localities. A second amount of $21.5 billion would go to the states. Renters would eventually have to start paying again whether their individual circumstances had changed or not.

In an attempt to remedy this, Congress allocated $25 billion in rental assistance in December, and in March, another $21.5 billion was added. This was a welcome relief to tenants and landlords alike, but the problem was in getting the money to the people who needed it, quickly. Confusion at the federal level about how to distribute that amount of money, and which of numerous programs would handle distribution, has also slowed getting the aid out. As Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas has reported, “many renters in need of aid simply did not know that they were eligible for rent relief, and if they did, some were unable to provide the necessary paperwork because of their turbulent living circumstances, lack of formal documentation of their work, or nontraditional rental agreements.” (See Attachment Eight)

While more than $1.5 billion was delivered to eligible applicants in the month of June, which exceeded the amount provided in all three previous reporting periods combined, only $3 billion of the total $45 billion allocated has been distributed, according to the US Treasury. Now that the federal moratorium has expired, at least four states — Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Oregon — have temporarily continued the ban on evictions against those with a pending rental assistance application. These state decisions will give renters time to receive their rent relief money when they might otherwise face eviction immediately. But renters in states that are following the expired federal moratorium face large sums of back rent, and if they are unable to pay, possible eviction.

More than 15 million people live in households that owe as much as $20 billion to their landlords, according to the Aspen Institute. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Parts of the South and other regions with weaker tenant protections were expected to see the largest spikes and communities of color where vaccination rates are sometimes lower and job loss almost universally higher, would be hit hardest.

"In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the President calls on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told Fox News last week. (Attachment Four, above)

But the votes were not there in either the House or the Senate, so, said the Fox, “the eviction ban expired.”

On Sunday night, the Associated Press reported, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leaders called on the Biden administration to immediately extend the moratorium, calling it a “moral imperative” to prevent Americans from being put out of their homes during a COVID-19 surge.

And then Monday dawned.

“Most expect the wave of evictions to build slowly over the coming weeks and months,” the AP suggested (rather Pollyannishly as it turned out), “as the bureaucracy of removing people from their homes restarts.”

Such was not to be the case.

Hungry landlords trooped to the courts to file papers for eviction – many had done so in advance with the co-operation of landlord friendly clerks and judges.

Some of the cities with the most cases, according to the Eviction Lab, are Phoenix with more than 42,000 eviction filings, Houston with more than 37,000, Las Vegas with nearly 27,000 and Tampa more than 15,000. Indiana and Missouri also have more than 80,000 filings.

So, as Monday soldiered on, the evictors worked their magic, renters shuddered in fear and the White House issued yet another press statement and economic recovery czar Sperling told The Hill that… while Biden asked the CDC if it had the power to ban evictions in areas with particularly high COVID-19 transmission rates… the agency was hemmed in by the court's decision.

"Even though the eviction moratorium was supposed to end on the 31st, even though the CDC had said it was their last extension," Sperling explained, "there was still a desire, a passion by this president to go back and say, 'Are we sure? Are we sure?' And he is still asking that question."

Monday’s AP report lay the race card, the Floyd card, the poverty and the plague cards on the table.

The left-wing Truthout reported numerous instances of police and sheriff brutality as the authorities raced to catch up on the backlog of evictions, on the model of a pre-moratorium rash of violent raids upon tenants, including those who, now homeless, found shelter in abandoned buildings in cities like Oakland.

Dominique Walker, an activist with Moms 4 Housing, “a collective of unhoused and housing insecure mothers” joined three other working mothers in reclaiming a vacant, investor-owned house last November to call attention to the city’s “displacement machine.”

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office evicted the moms and their children in a high-profile, militarized raid in early January. Sherriff’s deputies decked in riot gear and armed with AR-15s showed up with an armored tank and a specialized robot. The eviction ultimately cost the county $40,000 — well beyond the cost of simply housing the families — a point the moms are now zeroing in on ahead of a looming eviction wave.

Walker told Truthout that in addition to calling for full rent relief, the moms are targeting the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for funding cuts. They want that money reinvested in organizations that provide housing and a jobs training program focused on providing mothers with the necessary skills to land jobs that make at least $40.88 an hour — the minimum wage required to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland.

“There still hasn’t been an explanation of why they came with that much force for mothers and babies.”

The January eviction “was a very violent display and was meant to cause terror in folks who are standing up for their human rights,” Walker said. “This is the police state that we live in, where they will spend tens of thousands just to make you get out of a speculative-owned property rather than help you get permanently housed and fix the issue. It was unreal.”

Walker says the group is still working to plan actions this week targeting the Alameda County Board of Supervisors budget.

The January eviction “looked like a war scene out of a movie,” she says. “There still hasn’t been an explanation of why they came with that much force for mothers and babies, so we still want to hold them accountable for that while redirecting some of those funds to get mothers and babies off of the streets.”

Also clocking in were healthcare advocates. “Struggling renters are now facing a health crisis and an eviction crisis,” said Alicia Mazzara, a senior research analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“Without the CDC’s moratorium, millions of people are at risk of being evicted or becoming homeless, increasing their exposure to COVID just as cases are rising across the country. The effects will fall heavily on people of color, particularly Black and Latino communities, who face greater risk of eviction and more barriers to vaccination.”

Not all, not even a majority of the police, sheriffs and other officials charged with the often dangerous job of enforcing and conducting evictions relish their task.

That was much the way things played out in parts of North Carolina, where on Monday Sgt. David Ruppe knocked on a weathered mobile home door in Cleveland County, a rural community an hour west of Charlotte.

“We haven’t seen much of a difference at all,” he said. “We would still have evictions issued from the court and we would still serve them as if it happened pre-COVID.”

He waited a few minutes on the porch scattered with folding chairs and toys. Then a woman opened the door.

“How are you?” he asked quietly, then explained her landlord had started the eviction process. The woman told Ruppe she’d paid, and he said she’d need to bring proof to her upcoming Aug. 9 court date.

Ruppe, who has two young sons, said seeing families struggle day-after-day is tough.

“There’s only so much you can do,” he said. “So, if you can offer them a glimmer of hope, words of encouragement, especially if there’s kids involved. Being a father, I can relate to that.”

It’s the future. Shouldn’t there be a robot for this?

Rental property owners usually contend that they want to negotiate — especially if there is federal money to sweeten the pot, attorney Lynn Wilson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And there will likely be a lot of encouragement for that from the courts,” she said.

“We do not foresee, as many have predicted, a tsunami of evictions,” she said. “These owners have little incentive to evict. Eviction is always a last resort.”

Still and all, the lawyers are gathering.

Tenants who find the promise of relief a mirage are turning to nonprofit and advocacy organizations, where such exist… Americans like Luis Vertentes, told by a judge he had three weeks to clear out of his one-bedroom apartment in nearby East Providence after being hospitalized and falling behind on his rent.

“I’m going to be homeless, all because of this pandemic,” Vertentes said. “I feel helpless, like I can’t do anything even though I work and I got a full-time job.”

He was, however, one of the lucky ones. Outside the courtroom, Katie Barrington, a case manager with Crossroads Rhode Island, a nonprofit housing and homeless agency, signed him up with a housing counsellor to help him secure a new home and enrolled him for federal rental assistance.

While the moratorium was enforced in much of the country, there were places like Idaho where judges ignored it, said Ali Rabe, executive director of Jesse Tree, a non-profit that works to prevent evictions in the Boise metropolitan area.

The non-profit represented renters in about 800 evictions in the past year, and only once was the moratorium enforced, Rabe said. Statewide about 1,500 people were evicted in the past year, she said.

“Eviction courts ran as usual,” she said.

Anyone at risk of eviction should seek free legal help, the experts say. But sometimes the experts show only their lack of expertise as regards the colder, harder facts of life.

“There’s a lot of cases where tenants are getting evicted that have already been approved for rental assistance,” K’Lisha Rutledge, an attorney with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, told the Texas Tribune. “And their landlord knows that they’ve been approved, and they’re just waiting on the check.”

And in locations where jobs are plentiful and rent controls dampen the amount that the rentier class can squeeze out of tenants, booting long-term renters out and doubling, tripling the loot is a powerful incentive.

"Action is needed, and it must come from the Administration. That is why House leadership is calling on the Administration to immediately extend the moratorium," Pelosi, D-Calif., and her leadership team said in a Sunday morning statement hours after the moratorium ended. Rather than wait for Biden action, a bunch of the usual suspects… the Squad, Fox News duly reported, but also newcomers to the perceived politics of protests like Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who said she'd heard there were "thousands" of evictions on the first day after the moratorium lifted, with "potentially millions to come,"… came, sat on the Capitol steps while Pelosi was chairing her riot investigations, had their pictures taken and then, like the one-six mob, departed.

As the moratorium question deepened, the legal publisher NOLO prepared a roster of the individual states, including whether they had opted into or out of the hold on evictions and, for the benefit of the public, a list of tenant defense organizations to whom the afflicted (or the merely curious) might turn. (See this as Attachment Nine.)

Forty-one percent of all rental housing units in the US, and most of the affordable housing options, are owned by individuals, or “mom-and-pop” landlords, and the rent they receive from their tenants is often a large part of their own income. This means that the moratorium alleviated pressure from tenants by creating more pressure on landlords who still need to pay their own bills.

As Vox’s Demsas wrote:

“Losing more of America’s already dwindling affordable housing stock is a looming emergency that could be exacerbated if small landlords are required to act as the social welfare state without any financial assistance.”

The end of the moratorium potentially means money in landlords’ pockets, but there are still roadblocks. California is allowing landlords to get paid what they are owed from previous months without rent only if they waive 20 percent of the back rent. And some landlords have taken such a hit that they will be forced to sell their property, eliminating the opportunity to continue renting as a future source of income.

Landlords, even those who had traditionally played by the rules and watched their darkside competitors grow darkly rich, found the government’s promises empty. In Rhode Island on Monday, the AP told the story of Gabe Imondi, a 74-year-old landlord, was in court hoping to get an eviction execution — the final step to push a tenant out of one of four housing units he owns in nearby Pawtucket.

Imondi said he and his tenant both filed forms for the billions in federal aid meant to help keep tenants in their homes but so far, he said, he hasn’t seen a cent of the state’s $200 million .

A retired general contractor, Imondi estimates he’s out around $20,000 in lost rent since September, when he began seeking to evict his tenant for non-payment. The eviction was approved in January.

“I don’t know what they’re doing with that money,” Imondi said.

“(The eviction moratorium) is now a cautionary tale of how bad policies distort behavior and are difficult to end,” scowled the Wall Street Journal (See Attachment Ten). What else could those dirty little peasants want?

As opposed to renters’ single-sourcer websites like NOLO (above), landlords… obviously… have to turn to private sector relief agencies. Fortunately, there are plenty of these. Unfortunately, they charge either a lot or a little, depending on circumstances, but they will get the job done. Sometimes it is possible to recoup expenses in subsequent legal or garnishment action, occasionally there are valuables left behind that can be sold at a profit.

(A staggering amount of waste ensues when eviction simply tosses the renter’s property onto the sidewalk where it is subject to the random ragpicker… at best… or strong rains, at worst. In some locations, the valuables slowly becoming junk remain on the sidewalk for weeks, obstructing vehicle and pedestrian traffic and contributing to neighborhood decline… a sensible policy would be to do as self-storage companies do: move everything to an empty building or, at least, under a tent, allow a few days or weeks for renters, if housed elsewhere, to retrieve their belongings and begin the process of starting over and then sell these goods at the sort of price that would enable other poor or working families to pick up a desk, for example, or a trashbag of pots and pans or children’s clothes on the cheap. But the concepts of eviction and sense are mutually incompatible.)

A blurg from a typical eviction broker, EVICT THEM FOR ME is posted below as Attachment Eleven. (Some of the information therein may also be useful to renters.)

But the newly evicted, in some places, may find that even the streets will not accept them.

New York City, as reported the Times a month ago (Attachment Seven) has on its own accord extended the moratorium to August 31^st but has been cracking down on evictions victims by tossing their belongings into dumpsters and enforcing the typical “Keep Moving!” policy. The city’s Department of Homeless Services told the Times it resorts to cleanups only in the case of “service-resistant individuals” and is committed to helping people find homes.

“The name of the game is compassionate, consistent outreach,” Bill Neidhardt, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement. “The end goal is always permanent housing.”

But the city’s ability to offer people such housing is limited, and the process is slow. And advocates for homeless people and some city employees say the sweeps accomplish little more than chasing people from one spot to another, upending already precarious lives and — by blurring outreach and enforcement — discouraging people from accepting help.

“They are trying to make life so miserable on the streets that people will come into shelters, but that is a cruel and ineffective approach,” said Josh Dean, the founder of Human.nyc, a policy group focused on street homelessness. “People need to trust outreach workers, and this approach is destroying trust.”

Some business leaders interviewed by the Times are skeptical. “I don’t think persuasion is going to get people off the streets,” said Barbara Blair, the president of the Garment District Alliance, which represents businesses and property owners south of Times Square.

Ms. Blair, who has advocated removing homeless people from Midtown hotels, said the city had “utterly failed in terms of providing supportive housing for people who are very, very ill.” A middle ground should be possible, she said.

“The city has to balance keeping the streets livable for the rest of the population and at the same time removing these people from the streets into a place that’s safe,” she said.

New York could not remove Melvin Douglas but, the Times reported, they did snatch his worldly possessions, such as they were. After stashing his belongings neatly behind a pole under the High Line, he left briefly and returned to find them gone yet again.

Strike Three.

“I don’t even have a clean change of underwear right now,” he said as he sat dejectedly beneath a sign announcing that the crew would return the next day.”

The sun went down on Monday, the moon rose… vultures gathered in the trees and a lonesome owl hooted “Who? Who?” as the White House signaled they would continue to try to help find legal authority on the issue, but indicated the president had no ability to act and somebody else would have to step up.

“On this particular issue, the president has not only kicked the tires, he has double, triple, quadruple checked,” White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator Sperling had told the pro-Trump, pro-landlord Breitbart on Monday.

The administration, again, urged State and local governments to act on their own to stop renters from getting evicted from their homes.

Everybody, other than the afflicted tenants, enjoyed a good laugh and raised a stein of suds to Beerman Brett.

As of Tuesday morning, the government, at least, seemed on the brink (for what seemed the twenty or thirtieth time in two months) of passing a trillion dollar version of the Infrastructure bill as would pretty up the High Line, prevent more collapsing bridges, hundred year old sewer leaks and potholes from developing. The Senate vows they’re going to stay over for a day or seven to vote on the measure – there were, at last count, seventeen Republican supporters (seven more than needed to stave off a suicidal filibuster) on board, but some Democrats are now saying they will not support a stand-alone bill without the costlier Social Infrastructure (childcare, healthcare and, of course, housing) grab bag of three trillion handouts to constituencies ranging from childcare nonprofit bureaucrats to healthcare bureaucrats to housing bureaucrats.

On the rental and evictions problem… crickets.

The eviction moratorium was “perhaps justifiable amid the early lockdowns that threw millions out of work,” the Wall Street Journal grudgingly admitted. The original Cares Act moratorium that only applied to federally subsidized housing expired last July, but the Trump Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed its version in September. The moratorium applied to all rental housing and tenants who earned less than $99,000 ($198,000 for couples) who claimed they lost income because of the pandemic. “Landlords who evicted non-paying tenants could go to jail,” the rent-seekers fired up the terror and, more importantly, waved their wallets.

So, as of Tuesday, three million renters were being tied to the tracks like debutantes in a silent movie… side to side they would have lined the railway lines coast-to-coast… with a humongous train with a spike-studded cowcatcher bearing down. The villains… death, homelessness and a bipartisan Congress… twirled their moustaches while the good guys in white hats gathered up their white horses in a circle and…

Argued with each other.

And while they bickered and succored their private, crazy motives, the locomotive drew closer and closer to the screaming victims tied to the tracks…

TO BE CONTINUED…

JULY 30 – AUGUST 5

Friday, July 30, 2021

Infected: 34,945,408

Dead: 613,013

Dow: 34,935.47

It’s National Cheesecake Day. Also, the 100^th Anniversary of Wheaties. Some U.S. Olympians are favored to gain box covers (and more medals)… notably backup gymnast Suni Lee, replacement gymnast Mykala Skinner and swimmer Caeleb Dressell. Overall, Americans hold a slim lead in medals.

Evictions rise to the level of plague, wildfires and gun violence as American perils… Joe Biden’s appeal to Congress fails and they trot off on a six week vacation. At least we are wobbling closer towards a (slimmed-down) infrastructure bill.

CDC now calls the Delta Variant more contagious than chickenpox, spreads faster than the common cold and is able to leap tall vaccines in a single bound (aka breakthroughs). Super spreader summer at ritzy Provincetown, MA, Dutch music festival and… soon enough… Chicago’s Lollapallooza, where fake vaxx ID cards are en vogue (wasn’t the point of refuseniks that they were manly men who would boast about their indifference to disease and death?).

At least the economy is booming too… GDP hike best since before the plague and employers are looking for (cheap) workers. But new lockdowns would imperil that, too.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Infected: 34,978,276

Dead: 613,080

Back to school nearing and confusion reigns… masks or no masks, vaxxes or no vaxxes, in person or remote learning. Violent local school board meetings add to chaos. Refusenik Gov. Ron deSantis (R-Fl) orders his own children not to wear masks. Delta also causing employers to reimpose mandates and remote employment… which many workers like.

Council on Criminal Justice reports murders up 16%. Atlanta dog walker stabbed to death and her dog is killed too. Road rager kills teen driver after Astros game and rock through windshield kills Idaho toddler. Psycho goes on shooting spree after watching the latest “Purge” movie. TikTok star assassinated at another cinematic emporium. Gangs of angry monkeys battle one another in the streets of Thailand.

Quarantined Tokyo Olympians protest prisonlike conditions… cells with no light, bad food; losers accuse Russians of doping. On the other hand – 100,000 children are starving to death in Ethiopia.

Sunday, August 1, 2021

Infected: 35,002,148 Dead: 613,224

Wishy-washy authorities blame mis- (not deliberate dis-) information for plague rebound, finger wagging mediaggots preach: “Don’t judge!” Plague mastermind Djonald Undeterred raises over 100 million at maskless fundraisers as TreasDep sends his old tax returns to State and Federal prosecutors. Ex-Dem queen Donna Brazile goes on Sunday talkshow and says “God help us if we get to the Omega Variant.” (Movie producers sit up and take notice.)

Five more shot in New Orleans, four year old killed in Indiana, deadly car ramming in Virginia. But New York takes the weekend prize with ten (three gang members, intended, seven bystanders), five more in Nevada. Republicans say it’s all Pelosi’s fault (like the gays or blacks or Asians killed for just existing). NHL’s Evander Kane accused of throwing games to support wife’s gambling habit by… his wife!

Nanook the husky who chased the car of the cruel owner who abandoned him roadside and became viral is rescued and adopted.

Monday, August 2, 2021

Infected: 35,131,393 Dead: 613,679 Dow: 34,938.16

Eviction Day dawns. 3.6M at risk.

Daily plague cases still rising. Louisiana and Florida worst, Austin out of hospital beds. NIH director admits children are dying but vaxx refuseniks still refuse and the mandates and lockdowns are coming back. “We know what to do,” says Dr. Francis Collins, “we just need to get the politics out and do it.” Restaurants refuse to serve refuseniks, corporations fire them and Trump stalwart Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) gets it, but the no-nos revel in their “martyrdom”.

Politics is also stalling the infrastructure bill but progress… albeit slow… is being made and the Democrats feel they can round up enough Republican votes to close off the inevitable filibuster. Third Capitol riot policeman commits suicide, a fourth follows – Miami cops beat and stomp a black parking zone violator and an amateur videographer. Long, hot, violent summer looms.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Infected: 35,237,950 Dead: 614,295 Dow: 35,116.40

America finally reaches President Joe’s 70% deadline – a month late and nine thousand lives short. Kids, experts agree, can catch, spread and die from the Delta Variant, but bureaucrats insist they have to do more tests and studies and fill out more forms, with some schools already opening against a chaotic mishmash of rules and regulations. Twelve kids get it at charter school for vaxxing refuseniks. Sen. Graham blames his disease on a strategy session cum house party on Joe (D-WVa) Manchin’s houseboat.

New York report finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be “repulsive” and a lecher, eliciting sentiment from key Democrats (including President Joe) that he should resign. “I was only trying to make people smile,” randy Andy replies.

Simone Biles returns to competition and takes a bronze on the balance beam, with Team America cheering her on. But women’s soccer team loses to Canada and settles for bronze.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Infected: 35,330,664 Dead: 614,785 Dow: 34,792.67

CDC releases alternate plague report that says vaxxes are up 73%. San Francisco legalizes booster shots, blames ΔV (Delta Variant) for their defiance of Washington policymakers. Masks and vaxxes ordered for Disneyland/world and… NASCAR? (Say it ain’t so, Dale!) Ex-Pres Obama cancels his massive 60^th birthday bash, reviled by many as a celebrity super spreader.

Gov. Cuomo wakes to more calls for resignation from his former friends. A TV lawyer calls him “out of control” for blaming the victims and his own mother for teaching him that groping is an Italian tradition.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Infected: 35,437,377 Dead: 615,319 Dow: 35,064.25

700,000 maniacs converge on Sturgis, SD for resumptive biker rally beginning tomorrow. Experts predict that plague cases will bounce back to 200,000/day blaming mass outdoor gatherings and the ΔV. Dr. Fauci predicts that, without quick approval, more children will get sick and die… the bureaucrats stick by their paperwork. Overwhelmed hospitals are cancelling elective surgeries.

Western wildfires blaze… town of Greenville, CA is totally burnt. Temperatures are back up over the 100° mark.

Impeacher-ers closing in on Cuomo, four prosecutors in four different counties want a piece of his backside. After his tales of adventure with a female bodyguard, 60% want him to go.

With their divorces (and monetary issues) behind them, Microsoftee Bill Gates blames his “encounters” with Jeffrey Epstein, then hooks up with MacKenzie Scott/Bezos (perhaps already reconsidering her rebound marriage to… a chemistry teacher). All that’s lacking is the Beezosliebubba/Melinda coming together… then there can be a four-way union that puts their combined wealth to 425B (plus the value of the Gates foundation)… back ahead of upstart champagne and jewelry magnate Bernard Arnault.

The dangers of the Delta Variant conceded, economists, employers and workers all celebrated a massive half-point drop in the unemployed ledger. That was enough to push the Don into the black (or green) and that was all. Jobs aside, there were murder epidemics coast to coast, political paralysis and climate change causing (take your pick) floods or fires. A climatologist even said that the breakup of Greenlandic ice was imminent (which would change the course of the gulf stream and lead to global cooling – which, we suppose, is a good thing.) Sort of like a massive die off is generating jobs for undertakers and a population fall due to crashing life expectancies will mean more job openings. And then there is the plague… and the likelihood of further (and deadlier) variants beyond Delta. At least the American performances at the Olympics helped mitigate the strange atmosphere of that event.

THE DON JONES INDEX CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) See a further explanation of categories here… ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

DON JONES’ PERSONAL ECONOMIC INDEX
(45% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)

CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS			SCORE	SCORE	OUR SOURCES and COMENTS
INCOME	24%	6/17/13	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	7/30/21	8/6/21	SOURCE
Wages (hourly, per capita)	9%	1350 points	7/30/21	+0.31%	8/13/21	1,453.83	1,453.83	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 25.68 nc
Median Income (yearly)	4%	600	7/30/21	+0.03%	8/13/21	671.80	672.01	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 35,562 572 583
*Unempl. (BLS – in millions	4%	600	7/30/21	-9.76%	8/13/21	339.87	371.34	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/ 5.9% 5.4%
*Official (DC – in millions)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.01%	8/13/21	412.08	412.12	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 8.796 9,478 477
*Unofficl. (DC – in millions)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.08%	8/13/21	354.49	354.21	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 16,356 368 381
Workforce Participtn. Number Percent	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.024% +0.415%	8/13/21	316.50	317.81	In 151,708 741 778 Out 100,243 240 237Total: 251,015 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 60.22 47
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	7/30/21	+0.16%	8/13/21	152.23	152.48	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 61.60 .70
OUTGO	(15%)
Total Inflation	7%	1050	7/30/21	+0.9%	8/13/21	985.14	985.14	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.9 nc
Food	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.8%	8/13/21	278.09	278.09	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.8
Gasoline	2%	300	7/30/21	+2.5%	8/13/21	268.80	268.80	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -2.5
Medical Costs	2%	300	7/30/21	nc	8/13/21	287.06	287.06	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm 0
Shelter	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.5%	8/13/21	289.93	289.93	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.5
WEALTH	(6%)
*Dow* Jones Index	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.75%	8/13/21	378.32	378.10	https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/DJIA 35,064.25
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	5/21/21	+1.03% +3.71%	8/13/21	170.29 182.84	170.29 182.84	https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M): 5.86 Valuations (K): 363.3 nc
Debt (Personal)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.087%	8/13/21	272.70	272.56	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 64,608 664

	AMERICAN ECONOMIC INDEX (15% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)
NATIONAL	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.14%	8/13/21	310.85	311.28	debtclock.org/ 3,635 640
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.10%	8/13/21	219.31	219.09	debtclock.org/ 6,823 830
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	7/30/21	+0.11%	8/13/21	321.93	321.58	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 28,579 610
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	7/30/21	+0.12%	8/13/21	370.15	369.72	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 85,424 523

GLOBAL	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	7/30/21	+0.04%	8/13/21	292.30	292.18	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,098 101
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	7/30/21	+0.825%	8/13/21	182.97	184.48	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 206.0 07.7
Imports (bl.)	1%	150	7/30/21	- 2.15%	8/13/21	119.13	116.57	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 277.3 83.4
Trade Deficit (bl.)	1%	150	7/30/21	- 5.95%	8/13/21	97.15	91.37	https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html 71.2 75.7
SOCIAL INDICES (40%)
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Affairs	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.5%	8/13/21	392.21	390.25	Another coup in Myanmar. 100,000 children starving to death in Ethiopia. Sprinter from Belarus seeks asylum at Tokyo’s Polish embassy.
Terrorism	2%	300	7/30/21	-0.5%	8/13/21	234.77	233.60	Killer drone strikes oil tanker off Omani coast – Iran blamed. Taliban routing Afghan army in village after village. Lebanon “celebrates” one year anniversary of massive explosion by firing rockets at Israel,
Politics	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.2%	8/13/21	440.37	439.49	Bipartisan infrastructure talks go on and on and on. Refusenik Gov. deSantis (R-Fl) orders his children to be “tough” and not to wear masks or accept vaxxes.
Economics	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.1%	8/13/21	405.81	405.49	GDP soars higher than before plague. But sales slump for Amazon after expose; for Ben & Jerry after they denounce Islamic nations and for companies pushing back to work reopening back due to ΔV. Boeing Starliner joins space tourism race. Spirit Airlines’ “operational challenges” strand Earth tourists day after day after day. Frontier Airlines duct tapes violent passenger to seat. Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over theatrical v. streaming royalty arrangements.
Crime	1%	150	7/30/21	-0.7%	8/13/21	245.54	243.82	Council on Criminal Justice finds murder up 16% over 2020. Stabber kills cop then other cops kill stabber at Pentagon subway station. Dog walker and dog stabbed to death in Atlanta, 10 shot in NYC, 3 killed in S. Car., road rager kills teen driving home from Astros game, overpass rock through windshield kills Idaho child, psycho goes on shooting spree after watching “Purge” movies, TikTok star assassinated in Cal., movie theater, gunman groom in tuxedo wastes two in New Orleans. Treasury Dept. forwards Trump tax returns to prosecutors. NHL star Kane accused of throwing games to support wife’s gambling habit.

ACTS of GOD	(6%)
Environment/Weather	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.1%	8/13/21	406.51	406.10	Heat and fire back in the West, flash flooding and mudslides Midwest from Canada to Mexico border. 120° in Palm Springs. Deodorants said to destroy the ozone layer, prompting a stampede of ozone lawyers.
Natural/Unnatural Disaster	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.3%	8/13/21	405.69	404.47	Oregon firefighters “making progress”. California’s… not so: Greenville is destroyed. Colorado mudslides strand hundreds of cars overnight. New farming regulations prompt bacon shortage. Texas van crash kills ten “migrants”. Wall collapse at Tennessee Titanic museum injures three – sends believers to rereading Leviticus. The real Titanic underwater wreck said to be “disintegrating”.
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX (15%)
Science, Tech, Education	4%	600	7/30/21	-0.2%	8/13/21	678.67	677.31	Chaos reigns as schools reopen – different rules: not only for different communities, but for students, teachers, custodians, bus drivers etc.
Equality (econ/social)	4%	600	7/30/21	-0.1%	8/13/21	562.15	561.59	Dolly Parton invests “I Will Always…” royalties in black Nashville neighborhood. Five Miami cops stomp black parking violator, then do the same to a bystander who photographed them. Amazon warehouse workers said to be mulling another union election.
Health Plague	4%	600	7/30/21	-0.1% -0.1%	8/13/21	500.22 - 102.30	499.72 - 102.20	Study reveals dogs know when people are lying. Warning on depression pill Rexulti – may cause “unnatural urges”. US finally reaches President Joe’s 70% vaxx rate. Breakthrough cases spiking, but vaxxed victims getting less sick than the refuseniks. “I should have gotten the damn vaccine,” a dying man texts… parents are snatching illegal vaxxes for their kids. “Lock them up?” South African Olympic golfer and Yankees pitcher get it. A thousand of the 20K attendees at Dutch rockfest get it. Ex-DNC chair Donna Brazile says: “God help us if we get to an Omega Variant!”
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	7/30/21	-0.2%	8/13/21	461.41	460.49	Third Capitol Riot policeman commits suicide as Pelosi panel probes this and that. They are awarded gold medals, but 21 Republicans stomp their feet and say “No!” National ASPCA accused of hoarding 280M and giving nada to local shelters. Three of four Floyd killers ask for their trials to be separated from that of Ofc. Chauvin. Gov. Mike Parson (R-Mo) pardons gun-wielding St. Louis couple who menaced riotous home invaders.


MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX (7%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	7/30/21	+0.2%	8/13/21	523.14	524.19	MTV turns 40, nostalgiacs remember “when they actually played music videos. Rapper Da Baby says Da Bad Word, evicted from Da Covidpalooza. Olympic snapshots: Italian and Qatari tie in high jump, agree to share Da Gold. Simone Biles and US women’s soccer gain bronzes. Rihanna’s cosmetics “sideline” makes her the richest woman in America at 1.7B… Reese Witherspoon 2^nd, Kim K. down to 3^rd.
Miscellaneous incidents	4%	450	7/30/21	-0.2%	8/13/21	484.53	483.56	Ikea to sell candles that smell like Swedish meatballs. Gangs of monkeys battle on the streets of Thailand. Nanook, the car-chasing abandoned husky finds a forever home. Tabloid economists wonder: Will MacKenzie divorce her chemistry teacher and marry Bill Gates… will Jeff hook up with Melinda? And if both couples marry, which team will be richest?

The Don Jones Index for the week of July 30th through August 5th, 2021 was UP 14.38 points.

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com

ATTACHMENT ONE – From Fox News

At least 10 states have their own eviction freezes in place – although some of those protections are poised to lapse soon. Here's a closer look:

California: Roughly 1.6 million individuals – or about 14% of the state's population – who are behind on their rent will be protected from eviction through the end of September. Beginning in October, landlords will be able to remove people from their homes.

Hawaii: The state has halted evictions through Aug. 6, after which 26,000 individuals could be evicted.

Illinois: An eviction moratorium in Illinois will phase out by the end of August, although landlords were allowed to start filing for eviction orders at the beginning of the month. There are about 459,000 renters who are behind on their payments in the state.

Maryland: Renters in Maryland are protected from evictions through Aug. 15. About 18% of the state, or 228,000 individuals, are not caught up on rent.

Minnesota: There are some 93,000 people who are behind on their rent in Minnesota; they will be protected from evictions through Sept. 12, although a so-called eviction "off-ramp" begins Aug. 13.

New Jersey: The eviction ban in New Jersey will remain in place until the official end of the public health emergency designation – which expires in October – plus an additional two months. That means some 390,000 individuals will be protected from evictions until the end of the year.

New Mexico: The state Supreme Court in New Mexico has not yet set an expiration date for the eviction moratorium that's protecting about 72,000 renters who owe money to their landlords.

New York: Roughly 1.2 million New York renters who are behind on their rent are shielded by an eviction moratorium that's in place through Aug. 31.

Oregon: Oregonians cannot currently be evicted for rent owed between the months of April 2020 and June 2021; individuals who owe money over that time frame have until the end of February 2022 to cover it.

Washington: About 290,000 renters in Washington need to catch up on unpaid rent. The state has a freeze on evictions in place through Sept. 30.

ATTACHMENT TWO – From mofo.com

Update: FEDERAL JUDGE IN D.C. SETS ASIDE THE CDC NATIONWIDE EVICTION MORATORIUM

06 May 2021

On May 5, 2021, Federal District Judge Dabney Friedrich vacated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nationwide moratorium on residential evictions (the “Order”), which the CDC had recently extended beyond its congressionally approved expiration date of March 31 to June 30, 2021 (Alabama Association of Realtors, et al. v. U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-03377, United States District Court for the District of Columbia). While Judge Friedrich is but one of several federal judges to rule against the Order as highlighted in our March 4, 2021 and March 15, 2021 alerts, her decision is arguably the most extensive. Though no more favorable to the CDC than Judge Friedrich’s vacatur order, the holdings out of federal courts in Ohio and Texas at least were limited to the plaintiffs with standing before those courts. Here, Judge Friedrich refused a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for similar treatment and held that the CDC Order must be set aside: “[The D.C. Circuit] has instructed that when ‘regulations are unlawful, the ordinary result is that the rules are vacated—not that their application to the individual petitioner is proscribed’” (citing Nat’l Mining Ass’n v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs, 145 F.3d 1399, 1409 (D.C. Cir. 1998)).

The Alabama Association decision was based primarily on Judge Friedrich’s reading of the Public Health Services Act, 42 U.S.C. § 264(a) (the “Act”), pursuant to which the CDC first issued the Order in September 2020. Specifically, the federal court found that the Act, by its plain terms, did not expressly indicate congressional intent to vest the CDC with authority to impose a national eviction moratorium. Because the decision to ban evictions is one of “vast economic and political significance,” Judge Friedrich maintained, Congress could not be said to have delegated it without having made its intention to do so explicit.

The DOJ has announced that it has “already filed a notice of appeal of the decision [to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit] and intends to seek an emergency stay of the order pending appeal.”

We will continue to monitor these cases and provide updates as they become available.

Update (May 6, 2021): Judge Friedrich has just stayed her decision pending the DOJ appeal.

Update (June 3, 2021): On June 2, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the “D.C. Circuit”) opted to keep the CDC’s nationwide eviction moratorium in place during the appeals process.

A three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit issued the per curiam order affirming the stay Judge Friedrich granted on May 6, 2021 over objections by the plaintiffs, a coalition of Alabama landlords and realtors. In filing their motion to vacate the stay, the plaintiffs had hoped to prevent the CDC from enforcing its Order, which expires on June 30, 2021, at least until a final ruling on the DOJ’s appeal. Instead, the D.C. Circuit found that Judge Friedrich had not abused her discretion in granting the stay, largely because, in the court’s opinion, the government had “made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits, [since] Congress has expressly recognized that the [CDC] had the authority to issue its narrowly crafted moratorium under [the Act].” In further support of its order, the court also underscored the plaintiffs’ failure to prove that the stay might cause irreparable harm to their interests such that reversing Judge Friedrich’s decision would be appropriate: “The record does not demonstrate any likelihood that [the plaintiffs] themselves will lose their businesses, that an appreciable percentage of their own tenants who would otherwise pay in full will be unable to repay back rent, or that financial shortfalls are unlikely ultimately to be mitigated.”

While not meant to resolve “the ultimate merits of the legal question” at issue, the D.C. Circuit’s order suggests that the court may rule in the government’s favor when it finally does consider the appeal of Judge Friedrich’s ruling, whereby she vacated the CDC’s eviction ban on statutory grounds: “[The Department of Health and Human Services] has demonstrated that lifting the national moratorium will exacerbate the significant public health risks identified by the CDC because, even with increased vaccinations, COVID-19 continues to spread and infect persons, and new variants are emerging.”

We will continue to monitor this case and will provide further updates as they become available.

Michael Machado, a Law Clerk in our New York office, contributed to the writing of this alert.

Editor’s Note: mofo.com is the URL for the law firm of Morrison and Foerster, not what some might be thinking.

ATTACHMENT THREE – From SCOTUS

Cite as: 594 U. S. ____ (2021) 1 KAVANAUGH, J., concurring SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES _________________ No. 20A169 _________________ ALABAMA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS, ET AL. v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. ON APPLICATION TO VACATE STAY [June 29, 2021] The application to vacate stay presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him referred to the Court is denied. JUSTICE THOMAS, JUSTICE ALITO, JUSTICE GORSUCH, and JUSTICE BARRETT would grant the application. JUSTICE KAVANAUGH, concurring. I agree with the District Court and the applicants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium. See Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, 573 U. S. 302, 324 (2014). Because the CDC plans to end the moratorium in only a few weeks, on July 31, and because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds, I vote at this time to deny the application to vacate the District Court’s stay of its order. See Barnes v. E-Systems, Inc. Group Hospital Medical & Surgical Ins. Plan, 501 U. S. 1301, 1305 (1991) (Scalia, J., in chambers) (stay depends in part on balance of equities); Coleman v. Paccar Inc., 424 U. S. 1301, 1304 (1976) (Rehnquist, J., in chambers). In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31.

ATTACHMENT FOUR – From Fox News

BIDEN IGNORES PELOSI'S CALL TO EXTEND EVICTION BAN DESPITE KAVANAUGH OPINION

'Squad' Dems still protesting inaction from party leaders outside Capitol

By Tyler Olson

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) early in the coronavirus pandemic implemented an eviction moratorium that banned landlords from removing people who were behind on their rent. It was extended multiple times but finally ended Saturday night following a June opinion from Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh saying Congress – not the president -- would have to extend the moratorium if it were to continue.

Consistent with that, the White House asked Congress to pass legislation continuing the ban on landlords evicting tenants who fail to pay their rent.

But the votes were not there in either the House or the Senate, so the eviction ban expired. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News about Pelosi's statement, which essentially asked Biden to do something the Supreme Court already said is unlawful.

Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, are livid at their party leadership for allegedly not taking the eviction moratorium seriously. Sunday night marked their third night protesting lack of action by Biden and Democrats in Congress by camping out on the steps of the Capitol.

"5 AM. This morning felt cold, like the wind was blowing straight through my sleeping bag," Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., tweeted Monday morning. "Since Friday—when some colleagues chose early vacation over voting to prevent evictions—we’ve been at the Capitol. It’s an eviction emergency. Our people need an eviction moratorium. Now."

Bush said in a Sunday night tweet that she'd heard there were "thousands" of evictions on the first day after the moratorium lifted, with "potentially millions to come."

"People are being forcibly removed from their homes RIGHT NOW," she said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., says Democratic leadership could have extended the moratorium if it had the will to.

"The White House says it doesn't have authority to extend the eviction moratorium or cancel student debt," Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., tweeted Sunday night. "But it hasn’t had a problem conducting airstrikes without authorization from Congress."

It's unclear what steps either Congress or the White House could take next on the now-lapsed moratorium. The House of Representatives is scheduled to be out of session for nearly the entire month of August.

The White House, meanwhile, is trying to get lower levels of government to help renters with money that's already been allocated by Congress.

"The American Rescue Plan allocated an additional $21.5 billion for Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) that can be used by renters to cover arrears and make landlords whole. This is on top of $25 billion allocated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act," a White House press release said last month. "But state and local governments must do better. Money is available in every state to help renters who are behind on rent and at risk of eviction."

Fox News' Jason Donner contributed to this report.

ATTACHMENT FIVE – From the Associated Press

EVICTIONS EXPECTED TO SPIKE AS PANDEMIC MORATORIUM ENDS

By MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — Evictions, which have mostly been on pause during the pandemic, were expected to ramp up Monday after the Biden administration allowed the federal moratorium to expire over the weekend and Congress was unable to do anything to extend it.

Housing advocates fear the end of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium could result in millions of people being evicted. But most expect the wave of evictions to build slowly over the coming weeks and months as the bureaucracy of removing people from their homes restarts.

On Sunday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leaders called on the Biden administration to immediately extend the moratorium, calling it a “moral imperative” to prevent Americans from being put out of their homes during a COVID-19 surge.

The Biden administration announced Thursday it would allow the ban to expire, arguing its hands were tied after the U.S. Supreme Court signaled the measure had to end.

“Struggling renters are now facing a health crisis and an eviction crisis,” said Alicia Mazzara, a senior research analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Parts of the South and other regions with weaker tenant protections will likely see the largest spikes and communities of color where vaccination rates are sometimes lower will be hit hardest. But advocates say this crisis is likely to have a wider impact than pre-pandemic evictions.

The Biden administration had hoped that historic amounts of rental assistance allocated by Congress in December and March would help avert an eviction crisis. But the distribution has been painfully slow. Only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion had been distributed through June by states and localities. Another $21.5 billion will go to the states.

Ashley Phonsyry, 22, who will be in court Thursday for an eviction hearing after falling several thousands dollars behind on her Fayetteville, Arkansas, two-bedroom apartment, said her landlord refused to take rental assistance. She left her job after being hurt in a domestic violence incident and suffering from depression and anxiety. The eviction hearing is a day after her domestic violence case goes to court.

“It frustrates me and scares me,” she said of being evicted. “I’m trying so hard to make it right and it doesn’t seem like it’s enough.”

Around the country, courts, legal advocates and law enforcement agencies are gearing up for evictions to return to pre-pandemic levels, a time when 3.7 million people were displaced from their homes every year, or seven every minute, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

In St. Louis, where the sheriff’s office handles court-ordered evictions, Sheriff Vernon Betts said 126 evictions had been ordered pending the end of the moratorium. His office plans to enforce about 30 evictions per day starting Aug. 9.

Betts knows there will be hundreds of additional orders soon. He’s already been contacted by countless landlords who haven’t yet filed for eviction, but plan to. And he expected to increase his staffing.

“What we’re planning on doing is tripling our two-man team,” he said. “Right off the bat we want to clean up that 126 evictions.”

Sgt. William Brown, who leads the evictions unit for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, expects many evictions to follow the end of the moratorium. He rattled off statistics that showed the steep decline in evictions since the pandemic began: nearly 4,000 in 2018 and 2019, then a plunge to about 1,900 in 2020.

“I think that once evictions are there fully, there’s no more moratorium in place, it’s going to get really bad,” he said.

“It’s the most challenging position that I’ve ever been in, because at the end of the day I have an empathy and sympathy. I’m required by state statute to execute this,” he said. “You have to feel for these people ... watching small kids go through this, this entire process.”

Lee Camp, an attorney with the St. Louis legal group ArchCity Defenders, said the vast majority of tenants facing eviction don’t have lawyers, often because they can’t afford them. Meanwhile, he said, eviction cases move through the courts quickly in Missouri, often in a matter of weeks.

“The scales of justice are just at this incredible imbalance,” Camp said.

In Wisconsin, Heiner Giese, legal counsel for the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, said his trade association for rental property owners in the Milwaukee area has been “very strong in urging our members and all landlords not to evict.”

“I pretty strongly believe from the feedback we get from our members in the Milwaukee area … there will not be this giant tsunami of (evictions),” Giese said.

Still, Colleen Foley, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, said she “certainly” expects an uptick. She said 161 evictions were filed last week, a significant increase from prior weeks where filings tended to hover around 100 to 120.

ATTACHMENT SIX (A) – From CNBC

RENT CONTROLS ARE BECOMING A HIGHLY DIVISIVE ISSUE IN EUROPE

By Silvia Amaro PUBLISHED THU, JUL 29 20211:36 AM EDT

· Colm Lauder, head of real estate at investment bank Goodbody, told CNBC that he expects rental prices to keep rising. He said: “In Ireland, we are concerned that [rent] controls will stop capital coming through.”

· Barbara Steenbergen, a member of the International Union of Tenants and former lawmaker for the German region of Cologne, told CNBC: “We are of course pro rent controls if it’s part of a comprehensive housing package.”

LONDON — Rent controls are becoming increasingly popular in many European nations, but experts note that they rarely solve housing crises on their own and can even scare investors away.

Rent controls are government policies, whether on local or a national level, that aim to cap house price increases. They are intended to keep housing affordable, at least for the most vulnerable parts of a population. However, the policy has its critics.

In Sweden, for example, rent controls effectively toppled the government there. (See below) In Germany, the matter was subject to a year-long legal battle. Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Ireland have all had similar discussions about their property markets.

The root causes

There’s an age-old trend of people flocking to urban areas where there’s more jobs and higher salaries. But, at a time of low interest rates from central banks — which European nations have experienced in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis — and help-to-buy schemes, more people have bought property, either as a first home or as an investment to let. This demand then pushes up prices given the limited housing stock on the market.

In addition, the so-called “Airbnb effect” has worsened the situation, experts note. Rather than selling a property or letting it out long term, many landlords choose to make their houses or apartments available for short stays. This then means there’s less stock for the locals, thus contributing to a further acceleration of rental prices.

Between 2010 and the first quarter of 2021, rents increased by 15.3% in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

A vicious cycle

Property investors see a significant downside in rent controls in that they cap returns. In the case of Ireland, rent increases in certain areas are limited at 4% per year.

“If they can’t get [returns] then they will look elsewhere,” Lauder said.

Private investment plays a crucial role in supporting the housing market, by promoting construction and refurbishment. If investors find higher returns in other nations, they are likely to shift their funds there and supply will remain limited in that initial market.

However, not everybody agrees with this view.

Barbara Steenbergen, a member of the International Union of Tenants and former lawmaker for the German region of Cologne, told CNBC: “We are of course pro rent controls if it’s part of a comprehensive housing package.”

She highlighted how important rent controls are for low and middle-income families, noting that in Berlin, for example, rent increases have gone up exponentially, but salaries have not.

This divide is a “threat to social peace,” she said, while adding that she has not seen investment fleeing in any market that has rent controls. One of the challenges is that investors focus on luxury buildings and less on affordable and social housing, she said.

Ultimately, the solution may lay with the root of the problem.

“What I think needs to be done is increasing supply,” Vrieselaar said.

In a statement published in 2018, the European Central Bank noted that “housing completions in the euro area have remained substantially below their average level since the start of monetary union” in 1999. In addition, the ECB also said that the lack of building permits and labor shortages have been a constraint in improving supply.

But Vrieselaar suggested that governments should change the way they tax the sector, so they can better tackle the housing crisis. Essentially, he believes that the Netherlands should tax people’s wealth more, including their second and third homes and lower the burden on people’s incomes so tenants have more room to spend on their rent.

ATTACHMENT SIX (B) – From Reuters

SWEDISH PM LOFVEN OUSTED IN PARLIAMENT NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

PUBLISHED MON, JUN 21 2021 7:09 AM EDT

KEY POINTS

· The nationalist Sweden Democrats had seized the chance to call the vote after the formerly communist Left Party withdrew support for the centre-left government over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments.

· The no-confidence motion, which required 175 votes in the 349-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 181 lawmakers.

· Lofven, 63, is the first Swedish prime minister to be ousted by a no-confidence motion put forward by the opposition.

Sweden’s parliament ousted Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in a no-confidence vote on Monday, giving the Social Democrat leader a week to resign and hand the speaker the job of finding a new government, or call a snap election.

The nationalist Sweden Democrats had seized the chance to call the vote after the formerly communist Left Party withdrew support for the centre-left government over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments.

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson told parliament the government was harmful and historically weak, adding: “It should never have come into power.”

The no-confidence motion, which required 175 votes in the 349-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 181 lawmakers.

Lofven, 63, is the first Swedish prime minister to be ousted by a no-confidence motion put forward by the opposition. He was due to hold a news conference later on Monday.

The Left Party blamed Lofven for triggering the crisis.

Dadgostar said that even though her party had voted against Lofven, it would never help “a right-wing nationalist government” take power.

A new government - or a caretaker administration - would sit only until a parliamentary election scheduled for September next year.

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – From the New York Times

NEW YORK IS PUSHING HOMELESS PEOPLE OFF THE STREETS. WHERE WILL THEY GO?

Cleanup crews are clearing encampments, but advocates say the sweeps just move people from one place to another and fail to address the housing crisis.

By Andy Newman and Nicole Hong Aug. 2, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ET

On a sweltering July afternoon, a homeless man named Melvin Douglas biked up to his sleeping spot beneath the High Line, the elevated, art-filled New York park overlooking the Hudson River, and found that a city cleanup crew had thrown away his possessions — again. The same thing had happened the day before.

“Brand-new clothes, brand-new T-shirts, everything,” Mr. Douglas, 54, said as he shook his head at the bare sidewalk. “They took all my stuff, bro. No regard at all.”

As the country’s most populous city strives to lure back tourists and office workers, it has undertaken an aggressive campaign to push homeless people off the streets of Manhattan.

City workers used to tear down one or two encampments a day. Now, they sometimes clear dozens. Since late May, teams that include sanitation workers in garbage trucks, police officers and outreach workers have cruised Manhattan around the clock, hitting the same spots over and over.

The sweeps are part of a broader effort by Mayor Bill de Blasio that includes transferring over 8,000 people from hotels, where they had been placed to stem the spread of the coronavirus, to barracks-style group shelters. The transfers are continuing despite the recent surge in the Delta variant of the virus, though the city told a judge it would delay the moves Monday to address concerns that it was not adequately considering people’s health problems and disabilities.

The city is also responding to months of complaints about homeless people blocking and befouling public spaces, menacing passers-by and committing random assaults. On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose administration has slashed aid for addressing homelessness, cited the problem as one of the main hurdles to the city’s recovery. “We have to get homelessness under control,” he said.

The debate over how to tackle homelessness in New York City, where over 2,000 people live on the streets and the subway, comes as cities across the country grapple with growing encampments. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council outlawed camping near parks, libraries and schools.

On Saturday, a national eviction moratorium expired, sparking fears of a new surge in homelessness, though in New York the moratorium continues through Aug. 31.

The city’s Department of Homeless Services says it resorts to cleanups only in the case of “service-resistant individuals” and is committed to helping people find homes.

“The name of the game is compassionate, consistent outreach,” Bill Neidhardt, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement. “The end goal is always permanent housing.”

The cleanups also defy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Covid-19 recommendations against displacing people who live outdoors unless they are being moved to “individual housing.” Covid-19 has killed over 120 homeless people in the city and has infected more than 4,100, officials say.

According to a statement from the homeless services department, the cleanup crews do not throw away people’s belongings.

Rather, they “carefully assess” a site while noting the “number and type of possessions,” remove items to protect “valuable property” and “quality-of-life for the client,” and provide “details about how they can obtain the property.”

Max Goren, who lives in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, has found reality to be a bit different.

“At least once a week, a sanitation truck rolls up,” Mr. Goren, 34, said in July. “If you’re not there to say, ‘Hey, that’s mine’, everything goes in the back.”

He said his possessions had been trashed three times — each time because he left them to go to a methadone clinic.

“Do I want to risk losing all of my clothes and all my bedding, or do I miss my clinic appointment?” he said.

“I think it’s an effort to get us to leave,” he said. “But where are we going to go? If I had some place to go, I wouldn’t be here.”

In Times Square, the city’s tourist center, a business group is testing a very different approach.

There, teams of people, some of whom were previously homeless or incarcerated, hand out T-shirts, socks, granola bars and water, hoping to build trust and, gradually, connect homeless people to social services. They only offer services if people ask.

The idea for the program, which recently won a $350,000 city grant, originated with Tom Harris, a retired police officer and the president of the Times Square Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes businesses in the area. Last year, Mr. Harris watched in dismay as street homelessness and open drug use increased in the area. At some outdoor dining tables, people took food off customers’ plates.

“The status quo was untenable,” he said.

But Mr. Harris was determined not to rely on the police. His view was informed by decades as an officer in Brooklyn, where he found that the most effective way to stop someone from committing robberies, for example, was to address underlying problems like addiction.

Working with the Midtown Community Court, which provides alternatives to jail for those accused of low-level crimes, Mr. Harris helped create Community First, a program that can refer people to nonprofits that offer housing or rehabilitation for people with mental illness.

After meeting with 136 homeless people, Community First teams found a stunning array of systemic problems. Some people had been released from jail without IDs or stable housing. Many struggled with substance abuse.

“We’re not going to tear down your home that you built out of boxes,” said Lauren Curatolo, the community court’s project director. “We want to support you so that you eventually want to have a bed in a space.”

For one man sleeping outside a Broadway theater, it took team members about a dozen visits — after showing up repeatedly with applesauce, his favorite snack — before he entered a homeless shelter and took a job training course.

People who are homeless and their advocates say that what they want, mainly, is something that is in short supply: a place to live with a modicum of privacy. The best that outreach workers can typically offer is a berth in a group shelter where 10 to 20 people often (share) a bedroom.

Since early 2020, the city shelter system has added more than 1,300 beds in single- or double-occupancy rooms that have drawn people in off the streets. But thousands more units are needed, the Coalition for the Homeless said.

One afternoon in June, a Community First team encountered Richard Birthwright, who said he had lost his job at a meat plant in North Carolina, returned to New York and started to sleep in the street.

When a housing specialist told Mr. Birthwright, 54, that there was little long-term housing for people who had been in the street for under a year and suggested a group shelter, he tensed up. He said that shelter workers were disrespectful and that he preferred to stay on the street.

Community First helped him create a résumé and secure an interview to work as a street cleaner in Times Square.

“Everything is working out just right,” he said. “I needed this.”

Some business leaders are skeptical. “I don’t think persuasion is going to get people off the streets,” said Barbara Blair, the president of the Garment District Alliance, which represents businesses and property owners south of Times Square.

“The city has to balance keeping the streets livable for the rest of the population and at the same time removing these people from the streets into a place that’s safe,” she said.

David Stayback, a construction worker in Times Square who was homeless in the area for two years, said the neighborhood had become an uneasy environment for him and his colleagues. “I’ve had knives pulled on me,” he said.

“I was a formerly homeless ex-con on the streets selling drugs,” he said. “When I talk to you like this, I’m not judging them.”

As recently as a year ago, after the Black Lives Matter protests, the city moved to reduce officers’ interactions with homeless people, disbanding the Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Unit. It has done an about-face in response to public outcry.

So the sweeps go on. At 14th Street and First Avenue in the East Village, a choreographed routine has developed.

One recent morning, street vendors set up tables a respectful distance from a sign announcing the day’s cleanup.

The city crew arrived. A sanitation supervisor took a photo of the sign that showed the lack of clutter around it. “I’ve just got to show my boss that I came and I did my job,” he said.

As officers stood guard, an outreach worker tried to convince a woman named Yolanda Evans to go to a group shelter. Ms. Evans said her many health problems made the risk unacceptable during an epidemic.

“How am I going to stay in a room with eight to 10 people?” she asked.

One homeless book vendor, Michael Jones, said the city crews had served a purpose.

“You had people building shanty towns near the scaffolding and terrorizing people,” he said. “At the end of the day, people were messing up a good hustle.”

Under the High Line, Melvin Douglas is tiring of playing cat and mouse. A week after his belongings were thrown out two days in a row, he stashed them neatly behind a pole, left briefly and returned to find them gone yet again.

“I don’t even have a clean change of underwear right now,” he said as he sat dejectedly beneath a sign announcing that the crew would return the next day.

Mr. Douglas said he might set up camp elsewhere in the city.

He said he had been where he was, thinking he was not bothering anyone, for close to three years.

“This is my spot,” he said.

In a related incident, a Hawaii homeless man was locked up in a mental institution for three years before the courts let him go.

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – From Vox 8/1/21

FEDERAL EVICTION PROTECTIONS HAVE ENDED, LEAVING RENTERS SCRAMBLING

Only $3 billion of a $45 billion relief package has been distributed to renters.

By Maryam Gamar Aug 1, 2021, 5:00pm EDT

It’s August 1, and rent is due. That’s a big change for many Americans who had been unable to pay rent but were protected from eviction by a federal moratorium. Now, those protections are gone.

Due to widespread job loss and the health risks of the Covid-19 pandemic, many renters in the US faced difficulty making their rent payments every month when the pandemic began in early 2020, and the federal government stepped in to prevent people from getting evicted in the midst of it. As part of this response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted a moratorium in September 2020 that prevented landlords from evicting their tenants regardless of whether they could pay their monthly rent in full or at all.

Last month the moratorium was already on borrowed time, as the Supreme Court had warned that it would not extend the renter protection past the end of July. Several justices including Justice Brett Kavanaugh supported this. “In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31,” wrote Kavanaugh.

The Biden administration did challenge the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, two days before the program was set to expire, by formally asking Congress to pass an extension. But Congress would have had to pass new legislation to create an extension, and did not do so in time before leaving for an August recess, so the moratorium has officially expired.

No more eviction protection means paying late rent, money renters don’t have.

This changes a lot for renters who now have to reckon with their landlords, some of whom have not received regular rent for almost a year. Renters are now required to pay any missed payments, and in some states the landlord is owed late fees for any late payment since the moratorium was enacted. Utilities are a bit of a gray area, but generally if the landlord is responsible for paying for a certain utility, in most cases they are not permitted to turn it off.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) was at the forefront of the fight for a further moratorium extension. As a formerly homeless person who has also faced eviction in the past, she has been vocal about the need to extend the moratorium, and slept on the US Capitol steps on Friday night in protest. “I am dirty, sticky, sweaty. I still have on what I had on last night. This is how people will have to live if we don’t do something … they deserve human dignity and deserve for people that represent them to show up, do the work, to make sure basic needs are met today,” she told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Saturday.

According to a study by the Aspen Institute and the Covid-19 Eviction Defense Project published in August of last year, nearly 40 million Americans were then at risk of eviction. People of color were, and still remain, disproportionately at risk as they are twice as likely to be renters. And the pressures that Covid-19 added just worsened the statistics. A June report by City Life/Vida Urbana and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that in the first month of Massachusetts’s state of emergency during the pandemic, 78 percent of eviction filings in Boston were in communities of color.

People with lower-income households are also more at risk, as they are less likely to have savings to pay rent and more likely to have been employed in Covid-affected industries. The moratorium aimed to help people like this who needed protection.

But although politicians like Cori Bush are fighting to bring the moratorium back, it was never a complete solution: Renters would eventually have to start paying again whether their individual circumstances had changed or not, while landlords were also struggling to make ends meet without rental income.

In an attempt to remedy this, Congress allocated $25 billion in rental assistance in December, and in March, another $21.5 billion was added. This was a welcome relief to tenants and landlords alike, but the problem was in getting the money to the people who needed it, quickly. Confusion at the federal level about how to distribute that amount of money, and which of numerous programs would handle distribution, has also slowed getting the aid out. As Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas has reported, many renters in need of aid simply did not know that they were eligible for rent relief, and if they did, some were unable to provide the necessary paperwork because of their turbulent living circumstances, lack of formal documentation of their work, or nontraditional rental agreements.

Renters were unsure if rent relief money would get to them in time

It might be easy to see landlords as the villains in this situation, but tenants aren’t the only ones struggling. Forty-one percent of all rental housing units in the US, and most of the affordable housing options, are owned by individuals, or “mom-and-pop” landlords, and the rent they receive from their tenants is often a large part of their own income. This means that the moratorium alleviated pressure from tenants by creating more pressure on landlords who still need to pay their own bills.

As Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas wrote:

With over 50 percent of the US population vaccinated, it may seem that now is an appropriate time to end the benefits of the moratorium. But Americans who took a financial hit during the peak of Covid-19 or who lost their job may still need support. The rise of the Covid-19 delta variant is also a concern, as research has shown that evictions lead to a higher likelihood of Covid-19 infection and death.

Concerns about the delta variant were also the main reason for the Biden administration’s push for a moratorium extension. “Given the recent spread of the Delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” the White House said in a statement.

Based on the Supreme Court decision, and absent action from the Biden administration and Congress, this support is not enough. With over $40 billion in rental relief left undistributed, and a threat to public health still looming, renters are in danger once again.

ATTACHMENT NINE – From NOLO

STATE EVICTION PROTECTION

The chart below attempts to capture the latest information on coronavirus-related tenant protections by state (and county and major cities, if applicable). Please note that this information is changing hourly, and the chart might not reflect all current protections. For the best information about the status of evictions where you live, check your state's judicial system or governor's website. You can also contact a legal aid organization in your area.

In the chart, click on the state's name to be directed to its official COVID-19 website.

State	County or City	Hold On Evictions	Hold on Utility Shutoffs	Other Tenant Protections/Notes
Alabama		No	No	-Alabama's emergency rental assistance program. -Visit ALtogether to find resources for assistance in Alabama. -Alabama's Coronavirus Relief Fund. -Public Service Commission states that it is confident no customers will experience interruption during crisis, and that after crisis period utilities will help with past-due accounts. However, the decision is left to individual utility providers.
Alaska		No	No	-See the Regulatory Commission of Alaska's COVID-19 utility information page. -Information for renters about 2021 rent relief programs.
Arizona		No	No	-Arizona Corporation Commission's ban on utility disconnects has ended, but many providers are extending the hold on disconnects and are offering assistance to customers. Check with your provider. -Resources for individuals in Arizona. -Arizona utility assistance programs. -Arizona rental assistance.
Arkansas		No	No	-Arkansas rental assistance programs.
California	(local ban information)	Yes: through 9/30/2021	Yes: through 9/30/2021	-The governor has announced an extension of the eviction ban through September 30, 2021. -Also see California Eviction Moratorium (Bans) and Tenant Protections for the status of bans in various California cities and counties. -Utility shutoff moratorium for nonpayment until at least September 30, 2021 for most utilities. See the CPUC's website on consumer protections during the COVID-19 outbreak for details.
Colorado		No	No	-By order of the governor, landlords must give tenants who have submitted an application for rental assistance 30 days' notice of nonpayment of rent before they can file an eviction suit. -See Colorado statewide utility tracker for information about whether your utility provider has put a moratorium on shutoffs during the crisis. You can also get current information about utility assistance programs on the PUC's website. -Check your court's website to see status. -Colorado's Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP).
Connecticut		No	No	-Governor has ordered new steps landlords must take before delivering a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent, as well as other tenant protections (extended through September 30, 2021). -Connecticut's UniteCT (emergency rental assistance program).
Delaware		No	No	-Delaware Housing Assistance Program -By order of governor, and until the end of the public health emergency, landlords could file eviction lawsuits, but courts were required to stay any proceedings. Order was in place until the end of the state of emergency, which ended July 13, 2021.
District of Columbia		Yes: see notes	Yes	-The mayor has signed an act phasing out the eviction and utility shutoff moratoriums. More updates once mayor's office has posted the final signed version. -D.C.'s STAY program (rent and utility assistance).
Florida		No	No	-Florida Housing's COVID-19 Information and Resources.
Georgia		No	No	-Georgia Rental Assistance Program. -Courts have discretion as to whether eviction hearings can proceed; check individual Georgia courts' status here. -Georgia utility assistance programs.
Hawaii		Yes: through 8/6/2021	No	-By order of governor, evictions for nonpayment of rent suspended through August 6, 2021. Governor has stated that the eviction ban will not be renewed after August 6, 2021. -Resources for emergency rental assistance in Hawaii.
Idaho		No	No	-Idaho emergency rental assistance. -Landlords and tenants in Ada County who are involved in an eviction for nonpayment of rent will be invited to negotiate an agreement through an online portal. -For financial and other assistance, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission has a county-specific resource guide.
Illinois		See notes	No	-By order of governor, as of August 1, 2021, landlords can file eviction lawsuits for nonpayment of rent. Law enforcement can't carry out evictions, though, until August 21, 2021. (Also see Executive Orders 2021-13 and 2021-14 for details.) -Tenants and landlords might be able to get assistance through the Illinois Rental Payment Program (ILRPP).
Indiana		No	No	-Indiana COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program. -Indiana resource guide.
Iowa		No	No	-Iowa Rent and Utility Assistance Progam -Rent and utility assistance for residents of Polk County and the City of Des Moines
Kansas		No	No	-Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance (KERA) -Kansas utility assistance resources.
Kentucky		No	No	-Kentucky's Healthy at Home Eviction Relief Fund. -Many utilities have voluntarily agreed to not shutoff for nonpayment. Please contact your utility provider for options.
Louisiana		No	No	-Louisiana's Emergency Rental Assistance Program -For information on utilities, visit the Louisiana Public Service Commission's website. -Louisiana Law Help is regularly updating its website with COVID-19 information for Louisiana residents.
Maine		No	No	-Maine's Emergency Rent Relief Program.
Maryland		Yes: through 8/15/2021	No	-By governor's order, no evictions statewide during emergency. Emergency declaration lifted effective July 1, 2021, but there is a 45-day grace period (until August 15, 2021) during which the eviction ban remains in place. See the Maryland Attorney General's consumer alert for more information. -Maryland's Emergency Rental Assistance Program
Massachusetts		No	No	-Massachusetts state resources for renters. -For utility information, see the DPU list of utility assistance resources.
Michigan		No	No	-Michigan's COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA). -Michigan utility assistance resources.
Minnesota		Yes: See notes	Maybe (see notes)	-MN legislature has passed an "eviction off ramp" law. As of August 13, 2021, landlords can terminate the lease of renters who are behind in rent and are not eligible for a COVID-19 emergency assistance plan. As of September 12, 2021, landlords can file evictions. For detailed information visit Minnesota Housing's RentHelpMN website (see particularly it's FAQs and timeline for off ramp). -Information about utility assistance.
Mississippi		No	No	-Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP). -Mississippi utility assistance.
Missouri		No	No	-Missouri emergency rental assistance program.
Montana		No	No	-Renters can seek relief from the Montana Emergency Rental Assistance program. -Visit the Montana Public Service Commission's website to locate your utility service provider's website and find out about status.
Nebraska		No	No	-Nebraska emergency rental assistance program. -More information and resources available from Nebraska Legal Aid.
Nevada		No	No	-Nevada emergency rental assistance program. -Nevada utility resources and updates.
New Hampshire		No	No	-New Hampshire Emergency Rental Assistance Program
New Jersey		Yes: until end of emergency +2 months	No	-Governor's order prohibits removal of tenants from residential properties, and postpones enforcement of all judgments for possessions, warrants of removal, and writs of possession. See New Jersey Eviction Moratorium Information + Question Form for more information. -New Jersey emergency rental assistance program. -See NJ's Board of Public Utilities FAQs on End of Shutoff Moratorium and Grace Period -New Jersey utility assistance programs.
New Mexico		Yes	No	-See New Mexico's website on the utilities' response to COVID-19. -NM courts have placed a temporary moratorium on eviction. You must provide the court with evidence of current inability to pay rent at your hearing on the eviction petition. Eviction hearings will be held by video or phone, unless parties file a motion for in-person hearing. The NM Supreme Court has a FAQ page for more information. Moratorium in place until end of emergency. -New Mexico Emergency Rental Assistance Program -Many utilities have suspended shutoffs. Check with your provider for information.
New York		Yes: through 8/31/2021	Yes	-The state legislature's COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 was extended through August 31, 2021. It prohibits evictions and puts various tenant protections in place. -New York emergency rental assistance program. -HomeownerHelpNY -No utility shutoffs due to nonpayment during the state of emergency +180 days. See DPS's website for FAQs and more information. -Apply for New York Heating and Cooling Assistance (HEAP) program here.
North Carolina		No	No	-North Carolina's HOPE program.
North Dakota		No	No	-North Dakota COVID rent help -North Dakota Public Service Commission information on financial assistance with phone or internet service.
Ohio		No	No	-Ohio Home Relief Grant (for landlords and tenants). -Ohio Public Utilities Commission's information on utility plans.
Oklahoma		No	No	-Oklahoma's Coronavirus Aid Relief Application -Oklahoma's COVID-19 resources and assistance website.
Oregon		No	No	-Oregon emergency rental assistance. -Information about utilities in Oregon.
Pennsylvania		No	No	-Pennsylvania emergency rental assistance. -Pennsylvania Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Rhode Island		No	No	-Rhode Island emergency rental assistance.
South Carolina		No	No	-South Carolina SCStay program (COVID-19 housing assistance) -SC Housing's list of resources for rental assistance.
South Dakota		No	No	-South Dakota CARES Housing Assistance Program -Check South Dakota PUC website for resources related to utilities.
Tennessee		No	No	-Tennessee Housing Development's list of energy assistance programs for renters. -Tennessee Office of the Courts' list of eviction resources.
Texas		No	No	-Texas rent relief program -TXU Energy is offering customer support resources.
Utah		No	No	-Utah Home Energy Assistance Target (HEAT) Program -Utah Housing Assistance Program
Vermont		No	No	-See Vermont Legal Aid's website for details about evictions in Vermont. -Vermont Emergency Rental Assistance Program (VERAP)
Virginia		No	Yes: until at least 60 days after end of state of emergency	-Virginia Rent Relief Program -StayHomeVirginia.com -HB 5005 (regarding moratorium on utility disconnections). State of emergency ended effective July 1, 2021. See Virginia Utility Assistance Program.
Washington		See notes re: eviction moratorium "bridge" through 9/30/2021	Yes: through 9/30/2021	-Governor has announced an eviction moratorium "bridge" that will extend the eviction moratorium through September 30, 2021. Landlords cannot evict for unpaid rent due from 2/29/2020 through 7/31/2021. Beginning 8/1/2021, landlords may evict under certain circumstances. -Utility shutoff moratorium extended through September 30, 2021. -Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission's information on COVID-19 utility assistance. -Washington mortgage relief and assistance information.
West Virginia		No	No	-Mountaineer Rental Assistance Program
Wisconsin		No	No	-Wisconsin Rental Assistance Program. -Wisconsin Emergency Rental Assistance (WERA). -Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program (WHEAP).
Wyoming		No	No	-Wyoming Emergency Rental Assistance Program. -Check Wyoming's COVID-19 website for more information.