Jason Delgado
Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday extended the national eviction moratorium.
The extension comes just days before the moratorium was scheduled to expire on March 31. The protections are now extended through June 30.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health,” Walensky said. “Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19.”
To qualify for protection, couples who rent must earn $198,000 or less. Single filers, meanwhile, must earn less than $99,000.
Additionally, renters must declare that they can not pay rent due to the pandemic, show that they’ve sought government help and affirm that they will likely be homeless if evicted.
Notably, there are at least six prominent lawsuits challenging the authority of the CDC ban. So far, three judges have sided with the ban and three have ruled against it, with all cases currently going through appeals.
One judge in Memphis declared the CDC order unenforceable in the entire Western District of Tennessee.
Meanwhile, Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package included more than $25 billion in emergency rental assistance, plus more to help tenants who were behind on their utilities.
And while that money works its way to citizens, the need for relief remains dire.
John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, said current surveys show that 18% of all tenants owe back rent. That number also revealed significant racial disparity; the percentage of Black tenants behind on their rent was 33%.
Pollack called the ban “the only thing holding back the flood” of evictions that would spiral through the still shaky American economy.
“That kind of wave won’t just affect the renters themselves; it will devastate communities, much as the 2008 mortgage foreclosure crisis did,” he said.
The 17-page order can be found online.
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Content from the Associated Press was used in this post.
