[NOOKSACK, Wash.] – The Nooksack Nation is pushing back against a United Nations request to halt planned evictions of 63 people who were disenrolled by the tribe in 2018, and currently reside on reservation land.
The dispute began in 2013 when the First Nation of about 2,000 recognized citizens, started disenrollment of 306 people whose ancestral claims were called into question. Nooksack members have to trace their family ties to a group of homesteaders or a 1942 census conducted by the U.S. government. the “Nooksack 306” claim there was an error made in the 1980s during their enrollment, and they have legitimate membership to the Tribe.
The process moved slowly until 2018 when members of the First Nation voted to approve disenrollment. At last count, 57 people who have been disenrolled live on reservation land. Some live in affordable housing while others rent or are in rent-to-own agreements. An additional six members who have not been disenrolled, live with people who have. Of the 57, nine live in affordable housing and are facing immediate eviction. Tribal leaders claim there are 60 members of the Nooksack on a waiting list for affordable housing, including some who are homeless, and they have followed proper procedures to start the eviction process.
Tribal leaders argue that those disenrolled are from a similar First Nation but among peoples from Canada. People who are facing eviction and represented by attorney Gabe Galanda claim the requirements for enrollment are based on a census done by “colonizers.” Because of the modern-day political and geographical boundaries, the arbitrary 49th parallel border between the United States and Canada didn’t exist during the time when the Nooksack peoples had sovereignty.
On Jan. 13, Nooksack Vice Chair Rick George agreed to pause evictions until Feb. 2, on the behest of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). A BIA investigation concluded that the tribe had “adhered to the terms of the Rental Agreements and NIHA Procedures.” The investigation was narrow in scope, limited to reviewing the First Nation’s eviction process and if met the due process requirements of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA).
A statement on Feb. 4 from the Nooksack Nation read, “Today the Nooksack Indian Tribe reached out the United Nations High Commissioner demanding an immediate retraction after two UN special rapporteurs failed to contact the Nooksack Indian Tribe.”
“If you are descended from a Nooksack Tribal member and an Indian, you take your proof of lineage to the enrollment office and are granted citizenship,” the statement continued. “There were over 200 people – many represented by attorney Gabe Galanda – who said they were citizens, but who did not follow the rules for citizenship.”
The Nooksack Nation was recognized in 1855 and is part of the Coast Salish Peoples.
[SEATTLE, Wash.] – (MTN) Despite COVID cases increasing in 31 states, millions of Americans will come together on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving. Established as a national holiday by the Roosevelt administration in 1941 to aid in economic recovery and boost morale as the nation came out of the grips of the Great Depression, the contemporary version of Thanksgiving Americans celebrate, bears little resemblance to its namesake feast attended by pilgrims and Wampanoags in New England in the early 17th century.
In a recent Washington Post article detailing Wampanoag feelings about Thanksgiving four centuries later, Mashpee Wampanoag Cultural Outreach Coordinator, Darius Coombs, stated: “For us, Thanksgiving kicked off colonization.” English settler-colonization produced devastating consequences for Indigenous peoples throughout the nation. It introduced deadly diseases, stripped Native peoples of their ancestral lands, aimed to eliminate Indigenous culture, and worked to erase any evidence of violence and genocide from its history.
The whitewashed version of the Thanksgiving myth told at dinner tables and at schools across the nation that portrays the relationship between pilgrims and Wampanoags as peaceful and reciprocal erases the dispossession and genocide of the Indigenous nations of the Northeast and other Native peoples that soon followed.
Indigenous peoples along the New England coast had already negotiated a series of encounters with Europeans by the time pilgrims reached Plymouth in 1620. Aside from encounters with the French, Spanish, and Dutch, Native peoples witnessed a failed English settlement attempt at Roanoke in the late 16th century and the establishment of the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1607. Apart from Jamestown, most Europeans were temporary nuisances for Native peoples, as colonists often extracted resources and labor in service of the metropole—or home colony—before returning to their homeland. The English, however, never intended to leave, but rather to become permanent residents. This introduced a new and detrimental form of colonization Native peoples had yet to encounter.
While traditional colonialism generally resulted in temporary invasions, English settler colonialism had entirely different aims. As historian Patrick Wolfe explained, settler colonialism is a “structure, not an event,” whereby settler colonizers develop lasting institutions predicated on the elimination of Native peoples. Little did the Wampanoag know that the beleaguered visitors that reached their shores in early November of 1620 planned to stay.
Pilgrims reached the northeast at a time when Wampanoags experienced significant turmoil that included crippling waves of diseases introduced through contact with Europeans. Diseases dramatically decreased Wampanoag numbers and left the remaining population vulnerable to more powerful Native polities in the region, such as the Narragansett to the West. Wampanoag leader Massasoit, much to the chagrin of his people took a “wait and see” approach with the newcomers and hoped to create an alliance that offered a degree of mutual protection. With Tisquantum—a Wampanoag man who learned to speak English during his time as a captive—acting as a liaison, Massasoit hesitantly brokered an arrangement with pilgrims that later came back to not only haunt him but Native peoples for generations to come.
In the initial stages of this alliance, power swayed in the Wampanoag’s favor. As historian Colin Calloway notes, Europeans often depended on Native peoples “for food, information, and assistance in finding their way,” as well as “adjusting to a new environment.”
This proved no different for English colonists—especially relative to the environment. New England winters were unlike anything colonists experienced in their homeland. In fact, during their first winter at Plymouth, more than half of the pilgrim population died as a result of harsh conditions and resource scarcity. Thus, colonists were reliant on Indigenous people’s knowledge and hospitality to ensure their survival.
The fact colonists became dependent on Wampanoags is evidenced in a letter written in December of 1621 by Edward Winslow. Writing to a friend in England, Winslow noted how during the last spring colonists set “some twenty acres of Indian corn… and according to the manner of the Indians…manured our grounds with herrings.” Winslow also elaborated on colonists’ relations with Wampanoags, noting how they found them to be faithful allies and “often went to them” in times of need. Winslow’s letter goes on to demonstrate that during the early period of their relationship, the Wampanoags took on a paternal role: teaching pilgrims how to farm, gather food, and even hunt game in the wilderness—a place colonists often refused to go without the company of their Indigenous allies.
More interesting, though, are Winslow’s references to the first Thanksgiving. In this same letter, Winslow described the event that became a national myth as a “three-day feast attended by King Massasoit and some ninety men.” Winslow noted that Wampanoags “went out and killed five deer” for the feast “which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, captain, and others.”
What Winslow detailed as a feast of celebration that included the Wampanoags and colonists leaves out one very important piece of information—pilgrims never intended to invite their Native allies to join in their festivities.
As many historians have documented, the Wampanoags only found out about the feast after colonists shot off rounds of celebratory gunfire. Concerned his allies might be in danger, Massasoit gathered many of his warriors and went to the colony to investigate. Upon arrival, colonists informed Massasoit they were celebrating a successful and bountiful harvest. In a demonstration of good faith and reciprocity, the Wampanoags gifted their English allies with five deer, which served as the focal point of the feast. Only after imparted these gifts upon their English friends, did colonists welcome their Native allies to join.
It is important to note that the celebration that became the root of the contemporary Thanksgiving myth would not have been possible without the Indigenous knowledge provided to colonists. And while the feast represents a cordial, yet unequal relationship between the two parties, English friendliness soon turned to hostility. The relationship once defined by coexistence ended, and a new relationship based on conflict and violence emerged.
Roughly five decades after the “first Thanksgiving” took place, an ever-growing population of colonists blatantly rejected the cordiality of their predecessors. By the late 1660s, Massasoit saw his people and territory shrink considerably—a consequence of the prolonged encounters between Native peoples and the English. Too old to continue in his position of leadership, Massasoit passed the torch to his son Metacomet, who is often referred to in the historical record by his English name “Philip.” Having grown weary of ongoing land encroachment and cultural destruction through religious conversion, Metacomet replaced friendliness with resistance, and in June of 1675, violent conflict broke out between Native peoples in the region and colonists that became known as “King Philips War.”
King Philips War lasted nearly three years and is recognized as “one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history.” This period of violence resulted in the destruction of numerous Native villages and the death of 2,500 English colonists equaling roughly thirty percent of the settler population. Native peoples in the region, however, failed to emerge victoriously.
Rather as violence and dispossession escalated, Metacomet watched as the English sold his wife and son into slavery in the Caribbean. Then, in an effort to deter further Indigenous resistance efforts, colonial leaders executed Metacomet. Viewing him as a “treacherous fiend who deserved a traitor’s death” the English quartered his body and cut off his head, placing it on a wooden pole at the entrance to Fort Plymouth where it remained for more than two decades. In the decades that followed, Native genocide exponentially increased as settler-colonists worked to dispossess Native peoples and gain control of valuable land and resources.
Despite this, Native peoples continue to find various ways to resist, rebuild, and heal from the generations of trauma settler colonization has produced. So, while many of us are actively and willingly participating in a reenactment of a tradition that has little basis in fact, Native peoples across the nation will reject the myth of Thanksgiving in favor of observing a day of mourning to reflect on all that they have lost—which all began with a friendly meal.
[KIRKLAND, Wash] – (MTN) Congress had no appetite to extended the eviction moratorium as the August recess began, allowing it to end at 12:01 AM on August 1. Now, up to 8-million households behind on rent or mortgages are facing an uncertain future.
When COVID-related shutdowns swept the country in March of 2020, U6 unemployment skyrocketed to 18.1%. Even before the public health and financial disaster, 40% of American families didn’t have $2,000 in emergency savings, let alone the 60 to 90 days of living expenses financial planners recommend. COVID wiped out entire industries such as hospitality, travel, and theater, and entertainment. For those in the service industry and gig economy, the slowdown has hit the hardest.
In response to the looming economic collapse, Congress passed the CARES Act, which included a one-time stimulus check of $1200 for some Americans, the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. Despite trillions in aid, gaping holes remained that Main Street and American families have fallen through. Banks did not get guardrails on how to manage forbearances. Congress didn’t waive rent, only deferred it, and didn’t provide any financial support for small landlords. At one point, 12 million American households were $5000 or more behind on rent and 6 million households were facing foreclosure. The numbers have improved dramatically, dropping 50% for renters behind and 67% for mortgage holders.
Congressional leaders and the White House agreed on a second stimulus package in December 2020. President Trump initially did not sign the package, waiting until some benefits expired on December 26, before signing it the next day. The delay in signature created chaos for state unemployment systems. In March 2021, President Biden signed a third and almost certainly a final stimulus package, that extended the eviction moratorium another 30 days.
Up to $4 trillion in cash awaits for the foreclosures and evictions to begin
At the start of 2020, private equity firms were sitting on $2.5 trillion in cash. They call it dry powder, money ready for investment where the quants feel the best ROI awaits. By some estimates, there is now as much as $4 trillion on the sidelines.
The United States needs at least 7 million more affordable housing units than what is available today. Although rents in cities like Seattle have declined by 20% in 2020, property values have skyrocketed. Additionally, just as the moratoriums are ending, rents are increasing across the United States, sometimes dramatically.
Private Equity, institutional investors, and banks are already moving in. In 2019, 6% of single-family homes sold went into the rental market. Today it is 20%, and 25% in cities such as Houston. Blackrock and JP Morgan have been buying up entire neighborhoods, up to 140 homes at a time. Large investors are extending all-cash offers 20% to 50% over the asking price in some areas. The plan is to convert these into rentals.
The ripple effect impacts first-time buyers as it constrains an already tight market that can’t compete with the offers. The price raises existing prices for sale, driving up property taxes, gentrifying neighborhoods. For some, living “van life,” in trailers in special communities, or couch surfing has become the fallback plan.
For millions of Americans who are still paying rent, there is a hidden crisis in 2021. As small landlords lose their properties, these renters will get eviction notices from hedge funds and banks, with no interest in working with them to make sure they don’t end up homeless.
According to the Aspen Institute, 80% of those facing foreclosure and eviction are Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC). For white households in America, the average net worth is $170,000, while for Black families, it is $17,000. This inequity can’t be explained away by education, income, or indebtedness. For white Americans, once they become homeowners, five percent will fall back into renting. For Black Americans, the rate is double, at 10%. Black-owned small businesses had limited access to government aid programs, and by August, 40% of all Black-owned small companies had failed.
BIPOC communities are more likely to be “needless delinquent.” Analysts estimate 400,000 American homeowners are eligible for forbearances on their mortgage but are not aware or have been given misinformation from their lender. For some of these struggling homeowners, the damage isn’t foreclosure but the destruction of their credit score. A lower credit score impacts interest rates, insurance premiums and can even be a barrier to getting a job.
What a $600 billion transfer in wealth looks like
Court systems from Boston to Seattle are bracing for a flood of forclosure and eviction filings. Here too, banks and large corporate property holders will benefit. With more legal resources and free cash to act, their cases will move to the front of the line. Mom and pop landlords will have to track their court cases independently, without a management company to oversee activity. Already facing a cash crunch, they’ll still have to pay court costs and lawyers’ fees, but that will only be the start of their problems.
The average American house has a value of $296,000. If 2 million households get foreclosed in 2021, that represents $600 billion in property dumped into the market. For the 4 million households facing eviction, the looming crisis is even worse. An eviction on a credit report is a barrier to permanent housing, requiring large deposits. They’re facing thousands in debt and potential judgments with interest they can’t pay. An eviction can be a scarlet letter for years, becoming a barrier to buying a car, getting a job, or buying a home.
Although it may appear to be a boom for landlords with 4 million families hitting a rental reset button, this isn’t the case. For many, the door to another rental will be closed. Landlords may evict a family who can’t pay the rent, only to find applications from families who were just evicted.
Millennials in high-paying office jobs fled the rental market in 2020 for the suburbs to escape COVID restrictions and get more space for a home office. Large investors can amortize their investment and use tax vehicles to lower their expenses. Mom and pop landlords will face a further reduction in their passive income, driving even more homes into sale and foreclosure.
Congress has no financial incentive to stop this nightmare. For both parties, lobbies, PACs, and dark money keep congresspersons and senators in their positions of power. For the 40% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, there is no lobby to bend representative ears and grease the palms.
The reality is if this financial disaster is not averted, the 6 million households on the brink could be the tip of the iceberg.
Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
The show from May 13, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith. Patrons at the $5 and above level get access to our show notes and research documents.
Georgia Man busted after drilling holes in a U-Haul truck gas tank
Does Seattle have the 7th best BBQ in the United States?!?!
Acting Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz dismisses OPA use of force findings on June 1
Malcontented Minutes
Kentucky Derby Scandal deepens
Two Texas police officers shot and killed, one city worker wounded
Police hold press conference on the body of missing Indigenous found on Turtle Mountain
Black man beaten and robbed in Pennsylvania bar in racist incident
Government issues warning not to put gasoline in plastic bags
Florida woman arrested for pretending to be a high school student chasing Instagram clout
Levi’s is championing pronoun use
Evangelical Lutheran Church elects first openly transgender bishop
A mare and foal find comfort in shared grief
Two new mothers, one a gorilla, one human, bond at a Boston Zoo
Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
Content Warning
Editor’s Note: This show contains videos of events that some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised. Additionally, our remote connection had issues at a couple of points in the show – we apologize for the experience.
The show from April 29, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
Mike Solan is unhappy with a police officer’s experience at Chocolati
King County is getting $62 million in federal funds to aid the unhomed
Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress
Follow-ups and corrections
Correction on the Bothell stabbing story
Pierce County Council has announced they are pausing the investigation of Sheriff Ed Troyer
Update on the arrest of 73-year old Karen Garner
Royal’lee Wallace murder investigation
Seattle’s Indian population mobilizes to support their homeland during COVID crisis
Kirkland postal carriers start a food drive
Native Americans petition for the return of wild Bison in Montana
Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
Content Warning
Editor’s Note: This show contains multiple videos of events that some viewers may find disturbing including graphic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.
The show from April 28, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
Exodus from the Seattle Police Department continues
All Fireworks Banned in King County Beginning in 2022
Auburn Police Treat Road Rage Victim Like a Criminal Suspect
King County Health Tells Business Leaders to Prepare for Phase 2 COVID Restrictions
Was the Stabbing In Bothell and the Shooting in Rainier Beach Asian-bias Crimes?
Malcontented Minuted – Police Edition
Video shows Police seconds before the raid of Andrew Brown, Junior’s Home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Video shows police officers fist-bumping and celebrating the injuries they caused to a 73-year old Alzheimer’s Patient
Stephanie Bottom, 66, in brutalized by North Carolina police on body cam and is starting a federal lawsuit
Virginia police officer misidentifies a cellphone as a gun and shoots Isaiah Brown 10 times
Bodycam video of Anthony Alvarez being shot by Chicago Police shows him running away
Two Hialeah, Florida Police officers have been arrested for writing fake traffic tickets
Bodycam video released on April 28 shows Lymond Moses being shot by police after a pretext welfare check because he was sleeping in his car
Tennessee police officer fired for high-fiving a suspect who used a racial slur during the arrest
Bodycam video of Mario Gonzalez being arrested in Almeda, California shows officers restaining him for over 5 minutes before he dies in custody
Prince Georges police officer arrested on multiple charges, including first-degree assault, after fellow officers turn him in for treatment of a Black teen suspect
After a 10 year legal battle that went to the Supreme Court, Keystone XL Pipeline construction is blocked by Biden Administration
Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline have been a controversial topic since its inception. Protested by a coalition of indingenous peoples, government officials and residents in the Dakotas and Nebraska, the construction has been the subject of multiple legal challenges. In July 2020, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling blocking further construction on Keystone XL. On President Joe Biden’s first full day in office, he ended the project wth an executive order, reversing a Donald Trump executive order that restarted construction in 2017.
Tribal nations fight fear and distrust to immunize native language speakers and elders from COVID
Hundreds of indigenous dialects are at risk of disappearing forever as the number of native speakers dwindles. COVID has placed a special urgency to protect native speakers and tribal elders to keep traditions, and language, alive.
To many Americans, Gia and her husband (they requested we only use first names) live the American dream. Gia works as a substitute school teacher, and her husband is an international business consultant after a successful career at a Fortune 100. They own their home in a city that sits on numerous best places to live lists, and their children go to one of the top-rated public schools in the country. It seems so perfect, but Gia and her husband live a COVID nightmare and, like nine-million other American households, are on the brink of foreclosure.
When COVID related shutdowns swept the country in March of 2020, U6 unemployment skyrocketed to 18.1%. Even before the public health and financial disaster, 40% of American families didn’t have $2,000 in emergency savings, let alone the 60 to 90 days of living expenses financial planners recommend. COVID wiped out entire industries such as hospitality, travel, and theater and entertainment. For those in the service industry and gig economy, the slowdown has hit the hardest.
In response to the looming economic collapse, Congress passed the CARES Act, which included a one-time stimulus check of $1200 for some Americans, the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. Despite trillions in aid, gaping holes remained that Main Street and American families have fallen through. Banks did not get guardrails on how to manage forbearances. Congress didn’t waive rent, only deferred it, and didn’t provide any financial support for small landlords. Twelve-million American households find themselves more than $5000 behind on rent, and six-million households face foreclosure.
Congressional leaders and the White House have agreed in principle that another stimulus package is needed, but hyper-partisan politics has destroyed any forward progress. In 20 days, the CARES Act and all of its protections evaporate. If Congress takes no action, the transfer of $2.5 trillion in wealth to large scale investors, private equity, and large corporations will begin.
Up to $4 trillion in cash awaits for the foreclosures and evictions to begin
At the start of 2020, private equity firms were sitting on $2.5 trillion in cash. They call it dry powder, money ready for investment where the quants feel the best ROI awaits. By some estimates, there is now as much as $4 trillion on the sidelines. Interestingly, savings have grown in the United States across all income brackets in 2020. However, for the 40% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, small business owners, and small landlords, dry powder is just a banking term.
Gia and her husband have a first and second mortgage on their suburban home. When COVID struck, and the region moved to remote learning, her work evaporated. As COVID ravaged the United States virtually unchecked, a U.S. Passport would get you into less than 25 nations. Her husband’s work came to a halt, and he became stuck in Italy for four months. Gia applied for unemployment in July but is stuck in administrative limbo with thousands of other Washingtonians, owed back payments.
Then a lifeline appeared, and Gia’s husband got a job opportunity through a friend in Italy. With travel restrictions easing, he traveled to his new job, and Gia was rehired as a substitute teacher. The light at the end of the tunnel flickered out quickly. A health crisis struck her husband, leaving him stranded, unable to work or travel.
Small landlords on the brink of destruction
Photo credit @sarahephoto – a duplex in New Orleans
Rick is a small property investor in Tacoma, Washington (Rick asked we do not use his last name). He was able to earn a living by flipping homes one at a time, but as he started to approach retirement age, he wanted to create a small passive income stream. In November of 2019, he bought a distressed fourplex on a nine-month loan. Part of the conditions was to rehab the property and secure four paying tenants by August 2020. Rick purchased the property with all the units rented, and he started to work with the tenants to end their leases equitably. Then COVID hit.
Part of the eviction moratorium requirements is renters need to prove they have no other place they can live. One tenant moved out in February, but the other three stayed on. In June, two more accepted cash for keys as a compromise, but Rick was already in trouble. Meeting his loan conditions was an impossibility.
“I believed they would work with me,” Rick said, “historically, these lenders will work with you. Now I’m being charged 25% interest, and it is impossible to make those payments.” One of the original tenants remains almost a year later. They are paying rent of $800 a month but claim they have no other place to live and have refused cash for keys offers. An attorney told Rick that for $10,000, he would get the renter evicted, moratorium or not, but Rick wants to be fair.
Rick’s lender moved to foreclose. His attorney was able to stop the action, but the lender filed a default, which prevents Rick from securing financing anywhere else. “My lawyer told me they are operating as a loan to own. They give me the loan, but they end up owning the property.”
The United States needs at least seven-million more affordable housing units than what is available today. Although rents in cities like Seattle have declined by 20% in 2020, property values have skyrocketed. Large investors have access to tax programs and incentives that aren’t available to small landlords.
Because rent is considered passive income, small landlords do not have access to PPP loans. The imminent foreclosure and eviction crisis will not only put millions of Americans on the street during a pandemic but will gut mom and pop landlords on Main Street.
For millions of Americans who are still paying rent, there is a hidden crisis in 2021. As small landlords lose their homes, these renters will get eviction notices from hedge funds and banks, with no interest in working with them to make sure they don’t end up homeless. For the remaining tenant at Rick’s quadplex, come January, they’ll face a forced eviction when the lender moves to foreclose.
Up to 40 million Americans face financial disaster in January, and 80% of them are BIPOC
The U.S. Capitol
The CARES Act and all of its provisions will expire on December 31, 2020. For the unemployed, the first blow will come between December 25 and 27, when it becomes the last day to collect extended unemployment benefits. The loss of unemployment for 12 million will put another three-million households in jeopardy of eviction or foreclosure. For another 18 million homes, back rent and forbearances will come due on January 1, 2021, and the courts will be open for evictions and foreclosures on January 4.
Gia’s husband’s job in Italy was helping shut down a hotel impacted by the COVID crisis. During his time off, he suffered a sports injury. What started as a headache evolved into blurry vision and searing pain. A doctor’s visit revealed he had a detached retina in one eye and an injury to the other. He needed immediate surgery to prevent losing his vision. His vision is still blurred, and he is required to spend most of his time supine. He cannot work, and he can’t fly back home due to the air pressure change. With only Gia’s limited income, the forbearance on their mortgage looms large.
Almost six-million Americans expect to lose their homes in the opening days of 2021. According to the Aspen Institute, 80% of those facing foreclosure and eviction are Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC). For white households in America, the average net worth is $170,000, while for Black families, it is $17,000. This inequity can’t be explained away by education, income, or indebtedness. For white Americans, once they become homeowners, five-percent will fall back into renting. For Black Americans, the rate is double, at 10%. Black-owned small businesses had limited access to government aid programs, and by August, 40% of all Black-owned small companies had failed.
The BIPOC community has suffered the worst from COVID in near silence. Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic populations have higher rates of positivity, hospitalization, and death. This difference is driven by work in the service industries as “essential workers,” multigenerational households living under the same roof, and less access to quality healthcare. In Arizona, Doctors Without Borders have been operating on the Navajo Indian Reservation since April. When Indigenous peoples in Washington state appealed for PPE from the federal government, they were sent body bags.
BIPOC communities are more likely to be “needless delinquent.” Analysts estimate 400,000 American homeowners are eligible for forbearances on their mortgage but are not aware or have been given misinformation from their lender. For some of these struggling homeowners, the damage isn’t foreclosure but the destruction of their credit score. A lower credit score impacts interest rates, insurance premiums and can even be a barrier to getting a job.
What a $2.5 trillion transfer in wealth looks like
Gia and her husband have a first and second mortgage, and both are in forbearance. Their first mortgage is with Chase. Chase has taken the payments and interest they are skipping and moving them to the end of the loan term. Their second mortgage is with a small area bank, Umpqua. Umpqua will require them to pay one-and-a-half payments come January for six months. “When I explained our situation, the person at Umpqua asked how my husband had money to go to Italy. It was a business trip,” Gia explained. “I told them that we wouldn’t be able to meet those terms, and they told us they would put a lien on the house.”
Court systems from Boston to Seattle are bracing for a flood of forclosure and eviction filings. Here too, banks and large corporate property holders will benefit. With more legal resources and free cash to act, their cases will move to the front of the line. Mom and pop landlords will have to track their court cases independently, without a management company to oversee activity. Already facing a cash crunch, they’ll still have to pay court costs and lawyers fees, but that will only be the start of their problems.
The average American house has a value of $284,000. If nine-million households get foreclosed in 2021, that represents $2.55 trillion in property dumped into the market. As we learned in the Great Recession, some of these properties will go into bank possession and be allowed to crumble, unoccupied. Other properties will face gentrification, with family homes replaced by luxury units built to the lot lines. For others, like Gia and her husband, they’ll sell before the foreclosure hammer comes down and move further away from Seattle, seeking lower housing costs. The transfer of wealth doesn’t stop there.
For the 12 million households facing eviction, the looming crisis is even worse. An eviction on a credit report is a barrier to permanent housing, requiring large deposits. They’re facing thousands in debt and potential judgments with interest they can’t pay. An eviction can be a scarlet letter for years, becoming a barrier to buying a car, getting a job, or buying a home.
Although it may appear to be a boom for landlords with 12 million families hitting a rental reset button, this isn’t the case. For many, the door to another rental will be closed. Landlords may evict a family who can’t pay the rent, only to find applications from families who were just evicted.
Millennials in high-paying office jobs are already leaving the rental market for the suburbs to escape COVID restrictions and get more space for a home office. For those with money, decreasing rents will be a boom. Large investors can amortize shrinking rents and use tax vehicles to lower their expenses. Mom and pop landlords will face a further reduction in their passive income, driving even more homes into sale and foreclosure.
A cycle where renters will face an uncertain future of eviction through foreclosure or the sale to large investors could continue well after 2021. Affordable rentals in need of rehab will be gentrified, putting accessible housing further out of reach.
Congress has no financial incentive to stop this nightmare. For both parties, lobbies, PACs, and dark money keep congresspersons and senators in their positions of power. For the 40% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, there is no lobby to bend representative ears and grease the palms.
The reality is if this financial disaster is not averted, the 18 million households on the brink could be the tip of the iceberg.
Ten-percent of the U.S. population is facing homelessness in 2021 if Congress does not act. Worse, an eviction moratorium extension only kicks the problem down the road, and the amount owed in back rent keeps growing.
The immediate need for the unhomed will be to get them homed as soon as possible. Families that end up on the streets for six or more months enter into chronic homelessness. The stress and anxiety of living on the streets take a psychological toll creating anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Long-term homelessness leads to self-medication, alcoholism, and drug addiction. In the middle of a pandemic crisis, there are fewer shelter beds available, and often families are broken up and have to give up their pets. Education for children is disrupted and made even more complicated in an era of remote learning, which requires a computer and access to reliable high-speed internet.
With up to 80% of those facing eviction and foreclosure being BIPOC, an entire generation faces the gutting of accumulated wealth. The barriers to creating generational wealth, particularly in the Black community, will fuel inequity for decades to come.
For Rick in Tacoma, he fell through a loophole created by the eviction moratorium. When he bought the property in November of 2019, he worked to do the right thing for his tenants. Although the one remaining tenant is employed, paying rent, and not impacted by COVID, they refuse to vacate the property using the moratorium as a barrier.
“The bad things about laws that are too broad; they don’t capture all the cases. In this case, COVID has nothing to do with this one tenant,” Rick lamented. “I contacted the state Attorney General office, but they said they had never heard of a situation like this and didn’t know how to proceed. I told them that just a letter or a phone call to the lender would help, or provide a help desk for basic assistance, but the government doesn’t work that way.” Rick’s end game appears to be the loss of a lifetime of work, destroyed credit, and no possible retirement.
Gia is waiting for the day when her husband can return from Italy, and they plan to put their home on the market. At the start of 2020, they were on a solid footing with a nine-month cushion. “How could you plan for this,” she asked.
An immigrant herself, Gia arrived in the United States as a child at the end of the Vietnam War. “The [United States] took them us in with open arms back then. You want to escape Communism? Sure!” she reflected.
“We grew up, and we were on food stamps for a while, and there were five brothers and sisters. They put us in low-income housing, but we got out. Mom and dad bought a home. He was a mechanic and put six children through college.”
“We have to care for our citizens. What are you going to do with these people who have nowhere to live? No transportation. No housing. No medical care. Where are people going to go?”
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