Supreme Court overturns eviction ban! Where you can get help – National & International News – FRI 27Aug2021

Supreme Court ends eviction ban; get help now! Insurers: unvaccinated to pay more for COVID hospitalizations. 2 weeks after quake, Haitians still lack food, water and shelter.

NATIONAL NEWS

Supreme Court overturns CDC eviction moratorium

When President Biden and the CDC declared a new ban on evictions earlier this month, they knew they were on shaky ground legally and that the ban would not survive a legal challenge. That’s because, when the Supreme Court ok’d a one-month extension from the end of June to the end of July, the court had prohibited further bans without specific legislation from Congress.

When that extension ended, Biden called on Congress to push legislation through. But Nancy Pelosi batted the ball back into Biden’s court without even holding a vote before adjourning the House for summer recess. Progressive Congresswoman Cori Bush, who was once homeless herself, staged a protest by sleeping on the Capitol steps. She called on Biden to defy the Supreme Court and reinstitute a ban to give states more time to distribute rental assistance. And Biden did just that, but now the time he borrowed has run out.

What did we do with that time?

Not much. Just two days ago, we learned that states have distributed just 11% of the nearly $47 billion in rental assistance approved by Congress. In Mississippi, the situation is even worse. As of early July, Mississippi led the nation in percentage of renters behind on payments (29% or 157,000 renters). As of July 30, the Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP), which distributes rental assistance for most of the state, had spent just 6.2% of its allotment. I’ve not been able to find any more recent reporting on how or if RAMP has progressed since then.

What can be done now?

Following yesterday’s Supreme Court’s ruling, the White House said that Biden would continue to push states to get money to renters and landlords faster. Congress could (and should) still hold a vote to give this process more time. Earlier this month, Pelosi justified her decision to not hold a vote saying she “didn’t have the votes”.

But with anywhere between 4 million – 11 million people in danger of eviction nationwide, now would be the time to get every member of Congress on the record. Force every Senator and Representative, Republican and Democrat to cast their vote. That way, at least, the hundreds or thousands of soon-to-be-homeless Americans each of them represents will know which of their representatives had their backs and which didn’t.

What can you do? 

If you are a renter in need of assistance or a landlord with tenants behind on rent, you can still apply for rental assistance directly from RAMP either by visiting ms-ramp.com, or calling:

Local: 601-533-8401
Toll-Free: 1-888-725-0063

Free help with navigating the application process is also available from two organizations, Covenant Faith Outreach Ministries and Mississippi United to End Homelessness (MUTEH).

Covenant Faith Outreach Ministries
662-690-4009
Contact: Patricia Ross, info@cforminc.org
Office Hours: M-TH : 11 am – 7 pm

(Please be aware, this organization serves Union, Lafayette, Pontotoc, Lee, Itawamba, Prentiss, Tishomingo, Alcorn, Tippah, Benton, Marshall, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Monroe, Webster, Lowndes, and Clay counties)

According to this flyer from RAMP, people living in most areas of Mississippi can also contact (MUTEH) at 601-960-0557. You can also visit the MUTEH website by clicking here.

The MUTEH homepage shows links to click for people in different situations. These include “I am homeless and need housing”; “I am a homeless veteran and need housing”; “I am at risk of losing housing”; and “I am a landlord with tenants behind on rent”. When the page first opens, you’ll see a pop-up to sign up for a “waitlist” for help. This is for people who are just in arrears, but not in a more urgent housing situation.

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Insurers want unvaccinated to pay more for COVID hospitalizations

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) surveyed the top two insurance companies in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found that more than 70% of the nation’s largest insurers are no longer waiving COVID-19 treatment costs. That means that if you get sick with COVID and require treatment or even hospitalization, a bigger portion of those costs will be coming out of your pocket. 

According to the CDC, unvaccinated people who contract COVID are 29 times more likely to require hospitalization than vaccinated people. Hospitalizations for a severe case of COVID can cost around $50,000. But insurers aren’t asking patients to foot the bill alone. On average, fully-insured patients requiring hospitalizations for pneumonia, which has similar treatment to severe COVID hospitalizations, end up paying around $1,300 out of pocket. That number can go up or down depending on what kind of coverage you have, what treatment you receive and where you are.

Matthew Rae of KFF explains that more insurers are pushing for more people to get the jab. Unlike last year, there is an effective and fully FDA-approved vaccine for COVID. So, insurers are not as eager to fully subsidize this care as they did throughout 2020 and much of 2021.

Earlier this week, Delta Airlines announced that unvaccinated employees will be charged $200 more per month for their company health insurance to offset the costs of hospitalizations. Rae says, “Now that COVID-19 is largely preventable for most adults and employers are pushing people really hard to get vaccinated, it makes a lot less sense for those employers to be giving people who do get infected a break,”

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

2 weeks after earthquake, 1000s of Haitians still without adequate food, water and shelter

Two weekends ago, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked southeast Haiti. The quake killed about 2,200, left 30,000 families homeless, and many more scared to return to their homes.

The quake also flattened numerous clinics and hospitals, leaving those still standing struggling to attend the wounded. Medics say patients are still coming in with quake injuries that have gone untreated and are now infected. Even when patients leave the hospital, many have nowhere else to go.

Sterens Yppolyte, a trainee doctor in the hard-hit city of Les Cayes, says, “To tell the truth, medication and emergency health aren’t the most dire needs. Across the region what people need most is water, bread and tarps”.

Tarps and tents to build shelters, as many are sleeping with no shelter whatsoever. Roadblocks, fuel shortages and blockades by gangs have massively complicated the relief effort. Many communities whose roads were damaged in the quake are now only accessible by helicopter.

Uncoordinated aid

The U.S. military and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are coordinating relief efforts with military pilots helicoptering necessary supplies to remote areas. Colonel Steve Gventer oversees much of the air support missions. His pilots sometimes return with wounded who have no other way of reaching a hospital. Often, when pilots touch down in a remote village, they realize the bags of rice they are delivering don’t come close to meeting local needs. Local approach and ask for tents, water and basic medical supplies. 

But the military doesn’t decide what goes where, they just deliver what aid groups tell them to. Gventer says, “It’s very tough for us to deliver and then walk away”.

And that’s part of a much broader problem. As far back as the 2010 quake, which killed 200,000 and left 1.5 million homeless, there has been a mutual distrust between international aid groups and local government. This creates a lack of coordination and further hampers the ability to get supplies where it needs to go.

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