On July 31, the federal moratorium on evictions expired, which for more than 15 months helped protect millions of American renters from losing a roof over their heads. The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act included an eviction moratorium for certain households beginning March 27, 2020 – which was extended by actions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Congress through the end of July.
Some 6.5 million households in the U.S. are behind in their rent and half of these families could face homelessness over the next two months. Both President Joe Biden and Congress failed to take action to extend the moratorium as the expiration date drew near. Surprisingly, out of $46.5 billion in rental relief previously approved by Congress, only $3 billion has been distributed to renters. However, on Aug. 3, the CDC issued a new eviction moratorium that would extend through Oct. 3, but some legal observers say the order could be blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Public health officials and housing advocates warn that allowing the moratorium to expire as the COVID-19 Delta variant spreads across the country — particularly in marginalized communities — could lead to increased infections and coronavirus deaths. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Sarah Saadian, vice president of public policy with the National Low Income Housing Coalition, who examines the impact of the expiration of the eviction moratorium on the lives of millions of Americans who now face possible homelessness.
SARAH SAADIAN: Of the 6.5 million renter families who are behind on their rent, we estimate that about half of them are facing eviction in the next two months. And that’s because many of them have accumulated back rent over the year and a half as the moratorium was keeping them in their home while state governments were working to distribute emergency rental assistance. But with this moratorium lifting, it means that many households won’t be able to actually receive that help that Congress provided. And so, it’s hard to get a real firm estimate because the only data that is out there it’s really from the Census that has been doing a survey. We don’t really have a federal database that looks at evictions across the board. And so we’re pulling together all of this sort of information that’s out there to give our best guess of how many households are at risk.
SCOTT HARRIS: Sarah, tell us about the $40 billion that was allocated by Congress — funds under the Emergency Rental Assistance program that have not been spent on helping those folks who need assistance with their rent. Why is that money still sitting there?
SARAH SAADIAN: That is a great question. Part of the reason that we’re seeing so many delays in getting resources out to households is first because Congress took so long to pass COVID relief bills that included rental assistance. We had been calling for emergency rental assistance at the very start of the pandemic. We knew that renters would be hard hit by job losses and would need that support. But it took until December of 2020 for Congress to actually pass legislation.
Since then, we have seen programs undertake this huge undertaking to set up and expand rental assistance programs. But our nation really doesn’t have that sort of infrastructure on an ongoing basis. And so they’re starting from scratch and some communities have done a great job of allocating resources, but many, many more just haven’t been able to get the money out the door. Overall, we’re looking at about only $3 billion that has been spent of the total $46 billion, which means that there are resources out there on the table. We just need more time to get that money into the hands of renters and landlords.
SCOTT HARRIS: For those listeners who are confronting the expiration of this eviction moratorium and may find themselves in the cross-hairs of some court-ordered eviction, I know it varies in each state and locality, but how can they access the funding that’s there to assist them?
SARAH SAADIAN: Well, the first thing I would recommend for folks to do is if they, or someone they know is in need of assistance, to call 211, or go to the website that will connect people to a local call center, that will know of resources that are available in your area. Another option is for renters to go to our website, where we’re tracking over a thousand rental assistance programs and can find out which ones are closest to you. And of course, if you’re facing eviction, you should be contacting a legal aid attorney organization that can provide you representation in eviction court. Those three measures are things that renters should be doing as quickly as possible. Delaying seeking assistance is not going to help because we know that it will take time for resources to actually reach people in need. So the sooner, the better.
SCOTT HARRIS: President Biden and Congress have been criticized for their inaction to extend the eviction moratorium, Joe Biden cited the Supreme Court in deciding that the executive branch couldn’t extend the moratorium unilaterally, leaving Congress to take action. But of course they left town for the August recess and nothing’s happened yet. Can you make sense of the failure here?
SARAH SAADIAN: Yeah, it’s a really terrible situation for lack of a better word. You know, the president is correct that the Supreme Court has threatened to overturn the moratorium if it were to be extended. At the same time, we know that, you know, even if the bill that Maxine Waters and Speaker Pelosi had tried to push through in the House — even if it passed the House, we would really be facing a huge uphill battle to get it passed through the Senate where we know it would be nearly impossible to pull off 10 Republicans to vote with Democrats on the bill. So, an eviction moratorium is necessary, but it’s so difficult to see the path forward at the federal level. I think where we can see the, you know, the most important reforms and actions to protect renters, there’s a lot of things that can happen at the state and local level. State and local governments have more authority to pass eviction moratoriums that the federal government does, and we’re urging them to take every single action that they can to protect renters and also to get their emergency rental assistance money quickly into the hands of people in need.
For more information, visit the National Low Income Housing Coalition at nlihc.org.
