As Rent Moratorium Expires, Landlord-Tenant Battles Begin 

Readers may recall the eviction moratorium expired a little more than a week ago nearly four months after the US economy effectively shut down due to the covid pandemic. 33% of renters have yet to make their full payment in July, a recent survey showed. This means that 12 million renters could be on the cusp of eviction in a matter of months. 

Landlords are set to lose billions of dollars this year over the inability of tenants to pay rent thanks to the virus-induced recession. With much of chaos and disagreement on Capitol Hill about the next round of stimulus, nevertheless, no deal on a rent moratorium extension, landlords are now demanding back rent and August payment. 

While the exact cause of the landlord-tenant dispute turned violent in Georgia Sunday morning has yet to have an underline cause, one can only assume it might have been due to payment. 

FOX 5 Atlanta’s Kaitlyn Pratt quoted Gwinnett County Police’s twitter on early Sunday morning of a dispute between the landlord and tenant. 

Pratt tweeted, “LANDLORD-TENANT FIGHT Brings SWAT to a neighborhood. Landlord faces Battery, Obstruction of Justice and Terroristic threats.” 

LANDLORD-TENANT FIGHT
Brings SWAT to a neighborhood. Landlord faces Battery, Obstruction of Justice and Terroristic threats. https://t.co/lojk2rT9dh

— Kaitlyn Pratt (@Fox5Kaitlyn) August 2, 2020

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) said the landlord was charged with battery after a “dispute with a tenant turned into an hourslong SWAT standoff at a home in unincorporated Lawrenceville.” 

AJC didn’t say what triggered the violent dispute, but as we speculated above, it could have been due to rent payment. 

Washington’s inability to deliver the next round of Trump checks to the working-poor ahead of August, as we’ve noted a fiscal cliff was just ahead, has likely resulted in millions of folks skipping out on rent payments in August.

Tens of millions of Americans were pushed into instant-poverty by the economic downturn, many faces housing insecurity and homelessness as the labor market recovery reserves, which has led to millions of permanent job losses. Ahead of the recession, many Americans had insurmountable debts and no savings, or rather no safety net if times got rough. 

One would assume confrontations between landlords and tenants on the subject of payments are set to rise, as tenants are on the brink of being homeless, and landlords are having trouble servicing mortgage payments with rental income collapsed.

A new battleground of the working-poor and community organizing groups is set to transition from city streets to the front yards of those who face eviction.

Here’s a community organizing group called “Stomp Out Slumlords,” organizing on what appears to be a rental property of a tenant facing eviction in Chillum, Maryland.  

Stomp Out Slumlords organized a couple of dozens of folks, one day before August rent payment was due, held signs that said: “Eviction = Death,” and “Slumlords.” 

She’s right pic.twitter.com/YjFEJYpNOx

— Stomp Out Slumlords (@StompSlumlords) July 31, 2020

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The group tweeted one post of a picture of demonstrators in front of the house that read, “Fuck around, find out, landlords.” 

Fuck around, find out, landlords pic.twitter.com/SkVdaRmMUm

— Stomp Out Slumlords (@StompSlumlords) July 31, 2020

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There were also demonstrators in New Orleans last week, who blocked landlords from entering an eviction court.

Demonstrators protesting evictions have blocked off both enteranxes to first city court, which handles evictions on the east bank for rents less than $3000 (most New Orleans evictions) pic.twitter.com/O22wskFMA0

— Michael Isaac Stein (@misaacstein) July 30, 2020

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The new battleground, as tens of millions face evictions, could be on front yards of rental properties with landlords.