NC renters got help during the pandemic. They still need it.

Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@newsobserver.com.

Evictions still a problem in NC

Over the summer, I completed a research fellowship through Duke University that focused on evictions and housing insecurity in Durham. Part of my fieldwork consisted of observing eviction court and working with legal aid attorneys to better understand eviction. I watched eviction cases in court and saw firsthand just how many there are.

Through interviews with attorneys, tenants, court officials, and activists I got a good understanding of how eviction impacts people in Durham. But news reports make clear that the same thing is happening across our state.

The apex of the COVID-19 pandemic saw renewed efforts to address housing inequality. They were impelled by a consensus that a stable living situation was conducive to staying healthy during a public health crisis.

However, equitable, fair and affordable housing in Durham — or anywhere in North Carolina — cannot be a sporadic issue.

Predatory landlords have been quick to resume the cycle of eviction. In Durham, I saw as many as 50 eviction cases per day at the courthouse.

Meanwhile, the affordable housing market continues to shrink as housing units are bought up and privatized. Unabashed rent increases coupled with stagnant wages are forcing tenants to spend most of their income on rent, at the cost of other expenses like food.

As old dynamics of poverty and housing insecurity resurface in Durham and elsewhere in North Carolina, programs like the Durham Eviction Diversion Program must be sustained. So too must rental assistance initiatives since North Carolina does not have regulations for rent control.

Subsidized public housing must be adequate and expanded, especially for the poor, elderly and disabled.

As Durham and the rest of North Carolina return to “normal,” let’s have the courage to reimagine what we want for these tenants who are so crucial to our communities.

Michael Cao, Durham

Act now on farm labor shortage

Food security is national security, and by that measure our national security is in big trouble. As General Manager of Eastern Vegetables at L&M Companies, a produce sales and farming company in N.C. for more than 50 years, I see it firsthand.

We rely on our farms and farming partners to provide a steady, uninterrupted flow of fresh produce that we deliver to retail consumers and restaurant distributors. But farm labor shortages are threatening our ability to do that.

An unreliable farm labor supply leads to an unreliable food supply. So we must ask ourselves: Do we import our workers or do we import our food?

A country that must import its food is in a vulnerable position. The USDA projects that next year, for the first time in U.S. history, the U.S. will be importing more agricultural goods than we export. If we do not solve the labor shortage, our food independence will be gravely imperiled.

Our current federal visa system for migrant farm workers is so outdated and inefficient that it’s threatening our food supply. Farmers are forced to reapply for their foreign workers every year, making them reinvent the wheel. Labor uncertainty drives down their willingness to grow more acres.

North Carolina is among the top 10 states that produces specialty crops, which means much of the farm labor in our state must be done by hand rather than machine. If we don’t pass legislative reforms soon to stabilize our workforce from year to year, many agricultural producers in the state will have to make painful decisions to either slash production or get out of the business completely.

This would be devastating for North Carolina and the rest of the country. I urge Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr to strongly and swiftly support new agriculture workforce solutions. They should support legislation to fix our farm labor shortage by modernizing the H-2A visa application process, giving immigrant farm workers and their employers the stability they need and deserve.

We’ve seen through the quick implementation of the Coronavirus Relief Fund that Congress can act in a short period of time to enact help where it matters. That’s the kind of urgency we need to keep N.C. food production costs down and our farms alive.

Greg Cardamone, Raleigh