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NBC News: Landlords could exploit COVID-19 victims to fast-track evictions, housing advocates say

NBC News, August 13, 2020: Landlords could exploit COVID-19 victims to fast-track evictions, housing advocates say

Just a few weeks after recovering from the coronavirus, Barbaro Rodriguez, a driver for Lyft, received a letter from his landlord saying that he was being evicted for being a “nuisance.” Several tenants in Rodriguez’s apartment building in the Los Angeles area had reported that “they did not feel safe living at the property” knowing Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Rosario Sandoval, had tested positive for the coronavirus and were later seen without masks, according to the eviction letter, obtained by NBC News.

The couple, who deny they left their apartment without a mask, were given three days to leave.

Housing advocates say that in the push for gentrification and higher-paying tenants, landlords are trying to find any excuse to turn out renters, upgrade the now vacant unit and offer it at a premium. The coronavirus has emerged as a convenient way to facilitate this. And for working-class and middle-class families already struggling to hang on to their rented apartments in the country’s increasingly expensive cities, it means the virus carries an additional threat.

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