6 million renters face eviction in 8 days when a Trump-era ban expires. Biden is poised to let it happen.

6 million renters face eviction in 8 days when a Trump-era ban expires. Biden is poised to let it happen.
Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Fri, July 23, 2021, 11:41 AM

Both a federal eviction ban and a moratorium on foreclosures expire in eight days.

Some advocates are pushing for an extension of the eviction ban as new virus cases pile up.

The Biden administration is poised to allow both relief programs to expire on July 31.

On July 31, a set of pandemic-relief measures for renters and homeowners enacted under President Trump will end - and the Biden administration doesn't appear interested in renewing them.

A federal eviction ban is ending on July 31 after an extension last month. It's the same for a moratorium on foreclosures. But the Biden administration rolled out a new measure allowing homeowners to refinance their mortgages and cut monthly payments in an effort to aid 1.8 million Americans still in forbearance.

Still, some groups are pushing for the White House to take more aggressive steps to prevent people from losing their homes.

On evictions, advocates say the emergency measure's end threatens 6 million renters who are at risk of losing their homes at a moment new infections are rising and a federal program to help them has been slow to provide rent relief.

"The CDC eviction moratorium is a necessary public health measure to lessen spread of/deaths from COVID-19," Diane Yentel, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, recently tweeted. "The need clearly remains as Delta surges & 6m renter households remain behind on rent & at risk of eviction when moratorium expires."

Paul Williams, a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, projected that 80% of all households struggling with rental debt were in counties experiencing a surge of virus cases because of the Delta variant.

"Letting county courts kick people onto the street next week is probably the worst Delta variant strategy I can think of," he tweeted.

Around 11.4 million renters - or 16% overall - have fallen behind on rent payments, an analysis of Census data from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. Around 3 million people said they could be evicted within two months. Some courts ruled the ban unconstitutional earlier this year, Insider's Ayelet Sheffey reported.

Separately, the Biden administration is allowing homeowners to extend the length of their mortgages. The White House said on Friday that homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can still delay their payments until September 30.

Biden to allow eviction moratorium to expire Saturday
AOL Associated Press
MICHAEL CASEY
July 29, 2021, 9:59 AM

BOSTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Thursday it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled it would only be extended until the end of the month.

The White House said President Joe Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium due to spread of the highly contagious delta variant. Instead, Biden called on "Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay."

The moratorium was put in place last September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Given the recent spread of the delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” the White House said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available.”

The court mustered a bare 5-4 majority last month, to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear he would block any additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in June this would be the last time the moratorium would be extended when she set the deadline for July 31. It was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.

Housing advocates and some lawmakers have called for the moratorium to be extended due to the increase in coronavirus cases and the fact so little rental assistance has been distributed.

Congress has allocated nearly $47 billion in rental assistance that is supposed to go to help tenants pay off months of back rent. But so far, only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion has been distributed through June by states and localities. Some states like New York have distributed almost nothing, while several have only approved a few million dollars.

“The confluence of the surging delta variant with 6.5 million families behind on rent and at risk of eviction when the moratorium expires demands immediate action,” Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said.

“The public health necessity of extended protections for renters is obvious. If federal court cases made a broad extension impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed properties.”

The trouble getting rental assistance to those who need it has prompted the Biden administration to hold several events in the past month aimed at pressuring states and cities to increase their distribution, coax landlords to participate and make it easier for tenants to get money directly.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also has released an open letter to state courts around the country encouraging them to pursue measures that would keep eviction cases out of the courts. On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled a tool that allows tenants to find information about rental assistance in their area.

Despite these efforts, some Democratic lawmakers had demanded the administration extend the moratorium.

“This pandemic is not behind us, and our federal housing policies should reflect that stark reality. With the United States facing the most severe eviction crisis in its history, our local and state governments still need more time to distribute critical rental assistance to help keep a roof over the heads of our constituents,” Democratic U.S. Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Jimmy Gomez of California and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in a joint statement.

But landlords, who have opposed the moratorium and challenged it repeatedly in court, were against any extension. They have argued the focus should be on speeding up the distribution of rental assistance.

This week, the National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit asking for $26 billion in damages due to the impact of the moratorium.

The NAA “has long held that eviction moratoria are fundamentally flawed policies, leaving renters saddled with insurmountable debt and rental housing providers unfairly holding the bag despite unprecedented efforts to keep their residents housed over the past 18 months,” Bob Pinnegar, the president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.