Duluth, Georgia — Sally Lee and Robert Cho would freeze inside their house without a space heater — and the warmth of their next-door neighbor. The power line to their house was cut. Their landlord has refused to fix it for five weeks.
Cho’s disabled. Lee lost her job managing a beauty supply store when COVID-19 first spiked back in March.
They now owe nearly $9,000 in back rent and their lease expires next month.
Lee believes their landlord is trying to push them out.
“This is morally wrong,” Lee said. “We are talking about lives, human beings. Our life.”
“It’s been very hard,” she added. “What is going to happen if we lose our home or apartment, where are we gonna go?”
Lee and Cho’s situation isn’t unique. There’s a looming American housing crisis, evictions are now underway in many states like Missouri and Arizona.
More than 5.5 million people face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months. Meanwhile, some 712,000 Americans have applied for unemployment last week, indicating that the economy is still struggling with layoffs nine months after the coronavirus struck. The latest claims figures are three times the level typically seen before the pandemic. On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines warned that it may have to furlough nearly 7,000 of its workers.
Some economists expect jobless claims to tick back up in the coming weeks, attributing the recent drop to the holiday season.
All told, roughly 20 million people are now receiving some type of jobless aid. About 12 million are set to lose their benefits the day after Christmas unless Congress agrees on a plan to extend funding.
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