Some states are officially loosening their stay at home restrictions, and more will join in the coming months as Americans attempt to inch their way back to pre-COVID-19 life. Some of us will return to work, gather in small groups, and maybe even dine at a neighborhood restaurant.
As we proceed, what will it take to keep us safe and prevent new spikes in infections? Many experts say we won’t be out of the woods until there’s a vaccine, but how would a national vaccination plan even work? At the same time, technological solutions are being proposed, especially related to contact tracing, the process by which public health officials can map and anticipate the spread of a virus. Google and Apple, for example, have proposed harnessing our cell phones for contact tracing using Bluetooth proximity detection.
Yet technological solutions raise a whole host of privacy and civil liberties concerns. Throughout history, examples can be found of using health and public safety as a proxy for discrimination, and a thinly-veiled excuse to carry out racist agendas that infringe on civil rights and liberties — especially during times of crisis. As technology continues to outpace the law, how can we ensure its use is unbiased, and truly in the interest of promoting public health?
On the podcast this week, we explored these questions with professor Michele Goodwin, the founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California Irvine School of Law, and ACLU staff attorney Jennifer Granick, who leads our work on surveillance and cybersecurity. You can listen to the episode here.
It’s almost the first of the month, and millions of tenants across the country are at risk of losing their homes in the middle of a global pandemic. In the seven weeks since the U.S. declared a national emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic already has resulted in widespread economic consequences. More than 30 million workers have filed for unemployment, though many have yet to receive any benefits. And last month, nearly a third of apartment tenants didn’t pay rent by the first week of April — an alarming sign that many households are struggling to make rent during this crisis.
While Congress and state and city governments have issued somesafeguards against eviction, an overwhelming number of tenants are not protected from being kicked out of their homes during a global health pandemic. The CARES Act’s federal ban on evictions only prohibits landlords from filing new eviction actions against tenants living in federally supported or financed housing, and will expire on July 24. Accordingly, most tenants must rely on their state or local governments, leaving many without protection. Landlords in some states, such as North Dakota, Missouri, and Arkansas, are continuing to evict tenants in the absence of any statewide eviction bans. Other states have issued temporary bans on eviction, but even those are significantly limited in scope and leave tenants vulnerable to losing their homes due to procedural hurdles or loopholes. Moreover, many of these statewide bans are time-limited and offer no long-term protections, ensuring that courts will be inundated with mass evictions as soon as these bans are lifted. Many tenants are also at risk of losing water and utility service, posing a major public health threat during a global crisis.
The impact of mass evictions and utility shut-offs will overwhelmingly burden tenants of color and, in particular, Black women. Earlier this year, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and Data Analytics team found that on average, Black women renters had evictions filed against them by landlords at double the rate of white renters (or higher) in 17 of 36 states. These stark race and gender disparities in eviction have been found in other studies, which reveal that eviction often exacerbates and reproduces conditions of poverty for Black women and communities of color. Black women and communities of color will likely suffer the greatest hardship due to mass evictions — worsening the existing racial disparities that have emerged in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lack of statewide protections against eviction is also concerning for the housing security and safety of women, as tenants struggling to pay rent may be particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment and other forms of abuse by landlords during this crisis. There has been an alarming increase in reports of landlords sexually harassing tenants who are unable to pay rent due to COVID-19. Domestic violence survivors, already endangered because their homes are unsafe, face even greater vulnerability if eviction looms. Lack of safe and stable housing is one of the primary barriers that survivors face when trying to escape an abusive relationship. Strong protections against eviction are critical to ensure that tenants do not have to choose between enduring harassment and abuse or being forced to leave their home and compromise their well-being during a pandemic.
The impending flood of mass evictions will undoubtedly risk further spread of COVID-19, as families are forced to double-up with other households, seek refuge in crowded shelters, or find themselves living outside. Even without a public health crisis, eviction often sets off a chain of devastating hardships, including physical and mental health issues, chronic joblessness, financial loss, and homelessness. In the face of a global pandemic and its economic fallout, the harmful impact of eviction is only magnified. Moreover, the aftermath of eviction persists for decades, as individuals with prior eviction records are indefinitely shut out of future housing opportunities due to unfair eviction screening policies that deny housing to anyone with a prior eviction filing.
It is critical that state and local governments work now to ensure that renters do not face a surge of evictions due to an inability to pay back-rent as soon as the bans are lifted. Permitting mass evictions to take place — whether in one month or six — will lead to huge upheavals for families and threaten community stability.
In response to this threat, the ACLU and 20 state affiliates across the country joined housing advocates, organizers, and other groups to demand that their state and local officials take immediate action to prevent mass evictions and utility shut-offs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. State officials must issue comprehensive measures to stop mass evictions and utility disconnections that will:
halt every stage of the eviction process, including the issuance of informal notices to evict;
apply to all types of tenants and lease violations;
prohibit the collection of late fees and retaliation against tenants who assert their rights;
prohibit utility shut-offs and require restoration of previously disconnected services;
and prevent evictions once bans are lifted, such as requiring landlords to negotiate reasonable payment plans and creating relief funds to cover back rent.
These protections will provide the certainty and stability that all families need to ensure that no one is at risk of losing their homes while we work to find longer-term solutions to handling the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. As millions are being told to shelter in place, access to stable housing is saving lives. We must work to guarantee that no individual or family faces the loss of their home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Linda Morris, Skadden Fellow, ACLU Women’s Rights Project, & Sandra Park, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Women's Rights Project
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the ACLU’s work of defending and expanding civil liberties and civil rights continues, essential as ever. At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on issues arising from the government’s response — or lack thereof — to the pandemic.
Since the start of the outbreak, we’ve filed over 140 legal actions and have seen thousands of people released from prisons, jails, and immigration detention.
We and ACLU offices across the country are working in nearly every state to save lives, advocate for vulnerable communities, safeguard the right to vote, protect abortion rights, and guard against unjustified government overreach.
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Expanding the right to vote by mail
This crisis may well still be with us in November, and we are committed to ensuring that no one has to choose between their health and their vote. We’re in court in Georgia, Montana, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Missouri,Tennessee, Connecticut, and South Carolina to ensure that every eligible voter can vote by mail, and to protect their rights when doing so.
Thousands released from jails and prisons
Most prisons, jails, and detention centers cannot ensure adherence to the social distancing guidelines the CDC urges all of us to follow. Due to the work of ACLU affiliates across the nation, at least 37,000 people have been released from jails and prisons or never brought into the criminal legal system in the first place.
The ACLU has active campaigns in 25 states pressuring governors to adopt our model executive order, and pressuring prosecutors and sheriffs to reduce their jail and prison populations. We’ve filed multiple lawsuits against federal prisons, and at least 13 state affiliateshave petitioned their state supreme courts for the release of individuals from jails and prisons. We are also running paid digital or TV ads in 13 states, and People Power campaigns in 5 states. This work has already generated 15 executive actions.
Over 40 lawsuits filed against ICE
We’ve filed over 40 lawsuits against ICE detention centers nationwide seeking the release of individuals most vulnerable to severe illness or death due to COVID-19. Detention should not be a death sentence.
More than 430 clients have been released.
Demanding states turn over demographic data
The ACLU and at least 13 ACLU state affiliates have petitioned local elected officials to collect and release race/ethnicity and other demographic data of COVID-19 testing, infections and deaths in states where that data has not been released at all, or there are huge gaps in reporting. The data released so far has shown that by and large Black people are dying at disturbingly disproportionate rates. We’re urging states and cities across the country to collect and release this data so we may better protect all communities and identify those that are in particular need of support.
Challenging efforts to block abortion access
We and our state affiliates have sued in seven states to fight back against politicians cutting off access to abortion during the crisis. After facing litigation, abortion is available in Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Demanding tech equity and privacy protections for students
Over 25 ACLU state chapters warned in letters to state and local leaders nationwide that they have a legal obligation to provide all students equal and safe access to an adequate education. To help meet this obligation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACLU is demanding Congress and state and local governments ensure all students have equal access to the technologies that make effective remote learning possible, and that strong and uniform privacy safeguards are in place to protect students in the virtual classroom.
Our children shouldn’t have to stress about falling behind their peers simply because their families can’t afford internet access or a computer. Nor should they have to fear being outed as LGBTQ or putting family members at risk of deportation because current remote learning technologies lack basic privacy protections.
*** This is just the start. Once this emergency ends, the ACLU will be leading the fight to ensure any intrusions on liberty end with it.
