New Research Finds That Evictions Have Led To Hundreds Of Thousands Of COVID-19 Cases

The number of Coronavirus cases has risen partly because of evictions in the nation. 

With many out of work and without pay amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several have been forced to vacate their homes over their inability to provide rent money. New research shows that expiring state eviction bans that were put in place during the pandemic have displaced an estimated 40 million people, and now COVID-19 cases have surged, according to Annie Nova of CNBC. 

Most of the moratoriums were good for 10 weeks, but some states have continued eviction bans. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Francisco, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University and Wake Forest University School of Law found that removing moratoriums and allowing evictions will cause relatively 433,700 excess cases of Covid-19 and 10,700 additional deaths in the U.S. between March and September, CNBC reports. 

“When people are evicted, they often move in with friends and family, and that increases your number of contacts,” said Kathryn Leifheit, said one of the authors on the research and a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “If people have to enter a homeless shelter, these are indoor places that can be quite crowded.”

In the event that the CDC’s eviction ban isn’t extended until 2021, experts say COVID-19 cases will likely come from those who have been forced to leave their homes.

“This is a time where it’s not an overstatement to say that for many people, eviction can lead to death,” said Helen Matthews, communications manager at City Life Vita Urbana, a nonprofit in Boston.