Congress in longshot bid to extend expiring eviction ban

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours before a nationwide eviction moratorium was set to expire, Congress raced Friday to try to extend the ban in a longshot effort to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge.

A House panel convened to consider emergency legislation to extend the ban, which expires Saturday, through Dec. 31. But approving an extension would be a steep climb in the narrowly split Congress.

-snip-

Congress pushed nearly $47 billion to the states earlier during the COVID crisis to shore up landlords and renters as workplaces shut down and many people were suddenly out of work.

But lawmakers said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday they said only some $3 billion has been spent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-in-longshot-bid-to-extend-expiring-eviction-ban/ar-AAMKo5r

So where's the other $44 billion gone?

[Dream Girl]

1. Under these eviction bans, are the property owners given any subsidies? How are they expected

To pay loans and mortgages on rental properties if they can’t collect rent?

[Johnny2X2X]

2. There was some money and mortgage pauses, but largely no

Most small landlords with tenants who haven't paid rent in a while are out of pocket.

In fact, the ones that are the worst off are ones who include utilities in the rent, they are paying the utilities of their renters who aren't paying rent.

You can't just let people not pay rent forever unless you're making their landlords whole at the same time.

[Dream Girl]

4. I think of small landlords like my dad. Would he have hadto allow his tenants to live rent free

For something he had no responsibility or control over? Wat are they supposed to do? Keep paying their rent and utilities?

[Johnny2X2X]

7. My neighbor makes a living with his rental properties

He owns several, he had to sell 2 the last year and he had people not paying rent for months and months. Most rental properties in MI included water and sewer in the rent as it's a quarterly bill that is hard to break up monthly for renters and new renters. So he was paying water and sewer for people too. I know he was feeling a real financial burden and just sold a couple of his properties.

As I've said in other threads, you can't just live rent free unless someone is paying the rent for you. If there was a program to apply for during this where your rent would be paid for you, that would be one thing, but they just expected landlords to foot the bill and deny them the legal means to eject renters.

I think this moratorium should end. Or if they extend it should come with money to make the landlords whole.

[MichMan]

9. Yet states still demanded that property taxes be paid on time

Why wasn't there a moratorium on those?

[Amishman]

13. Agreed, not to mention the impact on the renters due to inability to afford maintenance

There are plenty of shitty landlords out there, but in my experience they are a painfully visible small subset of the whole. Landlords as a whole got screwed pretty badly by this.

Not to mention that the labor market is very much tilted in workers favor now. I don't see a need to extend this measure.

[Calculating]

3. This can't just go on forever....

And it's not fair to landlords. This needs to end.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Too little, too late.

[Hortensis]

6. Big surprise. Not. Last minute action increases the attention on any Republican

opposition. And as it happens so does the horrible news about the expectd surge with the delta variant, when we'd hoped we were nearing the end.

It seems likely that, if congress doesn't choose to throw more money at the states, at some point people are going to go looking for that "other $44 billion" and demanding it be used. The corrupt Republicans are no longer in charge in DC.

[MichMan]

8. Why should the states be given more money if they aren't using what they already have?

[Hortensis]

10. And what's been happening with all the people in trouble?

[MichMan]

11. Ask the states who haven't been disbursing the funds that congress has already provided

New York for example received $2.6 billion several months ago for rent assistance, and has disbursed less than $1 million so far.

[Hortensis]

12. Yup. Been happening all along, but Biden admin is acting

in a variety of ways, including getting the courts involved in connecting people with that money.

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Initiatives to Promote Housing Stability By Supporting Vulnerable Tenants and Preventing Foreclosures

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/24/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-initiatives-to-promote-housing-stability-by-supporting-vulnerable-tenants-and-preventing-foreclosures/