Over 1 in 10 Pinellas Renter Households are Currently Behind on Rent

As the CDC moratorium is set to expire this weekend on Saturday, July 31st, we are bracing for a possible spike in evictions here in Pinellas county. 

There are currently 2,130 open eviction cases in the county dating back to January of last year, according to data we’ve collected from the Pinellas Clerk’s website. The expiration of the moratorium may allow some of these cases to proceed, and there may be a spike in new eviction filings as the moratorium has likely discouraged many landlords from filing evictions to begin with. 

Pictured is data from a recent NYT editorial. 

According to this estimate, 14.7% of rental households are behind on rent in the US, with tenants owing an average of $3,800 in back rent. Over 1 in 10 Pinellas county rental households are behind on rent, owing $4,115 on average in back rent. Despite receiving $21.4 million from the federal government for emergency rental assistance, the Pinellas ERA only managed to distribute just $2.2 million to struggling tenants last month. It’s clear that this assistance isn’t getting out quick enough, and removing the moratorium before these funds are fully distributed will likely result in an unnecessary, fully preventable spike in evictions here in Pinellas county. 

Additionally, we are seeing a massive surge in new COVID-19 cases here in the state of Florida, with daily case totals now around what they were in January. Evictions and housing insecurity during so-called “normal” times are public health crisis; during a global pandemic this amounts to nothing short of a public health catastrophe. 

One study from UCLA showed that there were more than 10,000 preventable COVID-19 deaths before the establishment of the CDC moratorium last September. With totals surging once again there will likely be countless cases of preventable death, illness and trauma directly caused by our system’s violent and barbaric prioritization of profits over human lives. 

Housing is a fundamental human right that should be guaranteed. We must continue to work to shift our societies’ view of housing away from a regular commodity that can be withheld, and instead as a basic necessity that should be unconditionally afforded to all. 

As uncertain as the future may appear, we must continue to struggle alongside vulnerable tenants here in St. Pete and work to wrest power away from big real estate and back into the hands of regular folks who make up the backbone of our city. 

When we fight together, we win together. 

✊All power to the tenants! 

✊All power to the workers! 

✊All power to the people!