From the September-October 2020 issue of News & Letters

Detroit—About 60 people demonstrated at Detroit’s 36th District Court building to demand a continued moratorium on evictions. The court opened in mid-August for the first time since the COVID-19 shutdown in March. More than 3,000 Detroit families face the immediate resumption of eviction proceedings.

The court will now conduct “zoom evictions,” in which the renter does not appear in court but must participate via Zoom or else receive a default judgment of eviction. Moratorium Now and Detroit Eviction Defense demand that all $31 million of CARES Act housing funds be used to keep people in their homes.

There is no way to discuss eviction without including a racist housing system, with landlords supported by police brutality. The Black Lives Matter coalition challenges all of it.

—Detroit tenant activist