From the Biden Administration to the City of Omaha, so-called representatives are insisting on
returning to normal despite scientists’ recommendations. As tenant organizers, we are
unsurprised by this push to re-open. When it comes to evictions, elected officials at all levels of
government in Omaha have been pretending that we were back to normal since last May when
Governor Ricketts’ bare-bones executive order postponing evictions ended. Evictions never
stopped in Douglas County. Eviction court remained open, even when all other courts closed
this past winter due to high numbers of COVID-19 cases. Apparently it was too dangerous to
hold jury trials, but not too dangerous to cram renters into Courtroom 20 as landlords and their
lawyers argued in favor of kicking people out of their homes during a pandemic.
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