Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. rental market was in trouble. In 2017, economist Andrew Dumont calculated that 46.8% of U.S. renter households spent more than 30% of their income on housing. Poorer households, unsurprisingly, were even more heavily burdened; in 2015, the lowest-income quintile spent more than half of their income on rent.

The White House and a growing number of congressional Republicans support a renewal of the federal evictions moratorium and rental assistance payments in the next economic relief package.

The GOP support is due to the fear of a wave of evictions due to the pandemic downturn. The federal evictions moratorium put in place by the CARES Act relief bill in March expired on July 25.

In Columbus, Ohio, judges have relocated eviction hearings to the cavernous halls of the city’s convention center, to ensure there’s plenty of space for the grim business of throwing families onto the street.

In New Orleans, piles of personal belongings on sidewalks — “eviction cairns,” in the haunting phrase of Sue Mobley, a member of the city’s planning commission — are an increasingly common sight.