2020年经济学人 疫情下的租房驱逐保护令(1)（在线收听）

United States

美国版块

Eviction

驱逐

Shelter in place

就地避难

Can the executive branch halt evictions on public-health grounds?

政府行政部门能否因公共卫生问题而终止驱逐行为？

Even in normal times, attending housing court in America is a dispiriting encounter with the judicial system. The justice dispensed looks much like a conveyor belt. Few tenants can afford lawyers to challenge the eviction orders sought by their landlord (unlike criminal proceedings, there is no right to counsel). Many do not show up on the day, so the judge enters default evictions for them en masse. Even more dispiriting would be the spectacle of a judge pronouncing a family’s eviction by video conference in the midst of an epidemic that has killed 190,000 Americans.

即使是在平时，美国民众也会觉得出庭住房法院这样与司法系统打交道的遭遇令人沮丧。司法公正更像是传送带。很少有房客能请得起律师对房东谋求的驱逐令发起质询（与刑事诉讼不同，被告人并不享有获得律师帮助的权利）。很多人当天没有出庭，所以法官全部裁决为违约驱逐。一场疫情造成了19万美国人死亡，而令人更加沮丧的是，疫情期间，一位法官通过视频会议宣布驱逐一个家庭。

Fortunately that remains rarer than the weakened economy—with 11m fewer Americans working than in February, and an unemployment rate of 8.4%—might suggest. Many cities and states issued moratoriums when it became clear that the epidemic would result in a lot of missed rent payments. The cares Act, the enormous stimulus package passed by Congress, included an eviction moratorium for federally subsidised housing. Though it covered fewer than half of renters in the country, advocates cheered the measure before it expired on July 24th (generous federal unemployment benefits of $600 a week also expired soon afterwards).

相比2月份，美国就业人数减少了1100万，失业率高达8.4%，幸运的是，与疲软的经济显示的数据相比，驱逐的情况要更加少见，在得知疫情致使美国租客大量拖欠租金后，许多城市和州颁布了驱逐保护令。维生法案是国会通过的巨额刺激方案，包括禁止驱逐联邦政府补贴住房的房客。尽管这项法案覆盖了美国不到一半的租房者，但在7月24日到期前，支持者们为这项法案欢呼（每周600美元的慷慨的联邦失业救济金也很快到期）。

Congress has been unable to come up with a second stimulus bill, even though Democrats and Republicans agree that one is necessary. That prompted worries of a tsunami of eviction filings. In Philadelphia, 17 protesters were arrested for blocking the entrances to court a few days after the state moratorium expired. In some cities, like Milwaukee, evictions quickly rebounded after coming to a halt . Since there seems more hope of an October vaccine than a second stimulus, the consequences looked grim.

国会一直未能提出第二个刺激方案，尽管民主党和共和党都觉得刺激方案势在必行。这导致美国民众十分担心会出现大规模的驱逐申请。在费城，17名抗议者因在州驱逐保护令到期后的几天内封锁法院入口而被捕。在密尔沃基等的一些城市，驱逐情况停顿后迅速反弹。相比在10月份提出第二个刺激方案，推出新冠肺炎疫苗似乎更有希望，由此，前途堪忧。