RV resident Evans in San Francisco: "The damn virus"
Photo:Winni Wintermeyer / DER SPIEGEL
In the middle of the corona crisis, Denise Briggs received a mail from her landlord. She "already knew what was in there" when the envelope reached her, says the 55-year-old from Richmond near San Francisco. She knew the standard sentences from the letters of resignation, but she hadn't expected to be kicked out, not now, not during the pandemic. The landlord then told her on the phone that he wanted to sell his house and that she had 60 days to vacate her apartment, which is also standard. "At first I totally freaked out," says Briggs.
Shortly after the pandemic broke out, she lost her job with a non-profit organization that ran out of money. Briggs suffers from chronic respiratory problems, she belongs to the risk group. She has no savings, her creditworthiness - vital in the US - is poor. That made finding a new apartment difficult. "At that moment I was sure that I would end up on the street," says Briggs.
It would be a fate that, according to experts, currently threatens millions of Americans. First the virus took their jobs away from them, now they could lose their house or apartment. Due to the Covid crisis, between 30 and 40 million tenants in the USA can expect to be given notice because they can no longer afford the rent.
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