Eviction moratorium to expire Saturday as House leaves town without passing extension

[riversedge]

damn. damn.


Eviction moratorium to expire Saturday as House leaves town without passing extension

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-us-supreme-court-65d530199d4dd2c99b9839fcd9c22294


By Annie Grayer, Phil Mattingly, Kristin Wilson and Melanie Zanona, CNN

Updated 6:32 PM ET, Fri July 30, 2021
Evictions are looming as the Delta variant spreads


Evictions are looming as the Delta variant spreads 02:33

(CNN)An eviction moratorium for renters from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on track to expire Saturday night, after the House of Representatives adjourned for August recess without passing an extension.


Democratic leaders scrambled throughout the day Friday to try and find enough votes to extend the moratorium beyond the July 31 deadline to no avail. Just after 6 p.m. ET on Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer attempted to pass a bill to extend the eviction moratorium by unanimous consent, but it was rejected by Republicans. The House adjourned shortly thereafter.


The Supreme Court last month allowed the CDC order to stay in place until July 31 but said congressional action would be needed to extend it past that date. President Joe Biden called on Congress on Thursday to extend the moratorium to December 31, but both chambers have yet to move through the legislative process to extend the directive and the moratorium appears on track to expire barring some sort of last-minute action.

Biden called on state and local governments Friday evening to "immediately disburse" rental assistance funds from Covid relief laws ahead of the moratorium's expiration. "State and local governments should also be aware that there is no legal barrier to moratorium at the state and local level," he said in a statement.

[Deuxcents]

1. Six week recess?

They haven’t finished the job. One hearing on 1/6 n then they’re off? Am I missing something?

[Nexus2]

11. No kidding, with all that's going on a 6 week vacay doesn't seem warranted. [nt]

[question everything]

2. And yet, most of the funds were never received by the landlords

This is what needs to be done - what happened to all the millions?

[WarGamer]

4. States are having problems getting the $$ out.

[question everything]

6. And the question is why..

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Here are some reasons:

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/09/974923061/states-try-to-push-out-billions-of-emergency-rental-aid-to-families

Andreanecia Morris, executive director of Housing NOLA, a nonprofit group that promotes affordable housing, is worried that some overwhelmed tenants might have trouble navigating the application process.

"Someone whose landlord is about to evict them because they haven't paid in three, four, six, 12 months. ... do you think that person has consistent access to [the] Internet? You think they have a computer to fill out an application? You think they have access to a phone?" she asks.

Some programs provide options and assistance for tenants — online, in person or over the phone — but others do not. Application forms in some places are easy to fill out, but others are not.

The amount of aid available is also inconsistent, depending on where the applicant lives. The program pays up to 12 months of back rent owed and up to an additional three months in future rent. But some communities are offering less, depending on how much money they have available.

Morris says one problem is that Congress distributed the first $25 billion to states based on their overall population, not on the number of tenants they have.

"It is a lot of money, but it's not enough," she says. "Here in Louisiana, we're getting a little over $500 per renter," while Wyoming is getting the equivalent of almost $3,000 per renter.

Some landlords have also been reluctant to participate in the program. They're worried that if they accept even partial reimbursement, they'll have to agree not to evict the tenant or have their hands otherwise tied.

[MichMan]

5. Apparently the states don't think it is very important

[WarGamer]

3. they should have forced a vote to see who is OK with families on the street.

Here's looking at YOU, goppers.

[marie999]

9. The Democrats are the majority in the House so some of them must be against extending

the moratorium. I would like to know who they are. With the problems we are having right now there should not be a recess.

[WarGamer]

16. agreed

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. States are legitimately having issues making this program work. Making blaming states at the last

minute a political tactic will backfire hugely. There should have been messaging around this for the past six months.

[KentuckyWoman]

10. I am really confused about this whole thing.

We gave working people who lost their jobs during the pandemic an extra $600 a week on top of regular unemployment benefits. Then it went to $300 a week.

On top of that we had several different direct payments to everyone and we had pretty good payouts per child on top of that. We deliberately gave people more money that they made working to encourage them to stay home, and also to afford the added food expense since kids were home instead of at school.

And if they were on assistance prior to the pandemic ... not working ... didn't that assistance continue as before?

I swear I don't mean to be hardheaded, but I can't get my arms around why someone can't get the rent paid with all that assistance coming in.

[W_HAMILTON]

12. A lot of the assistance is very difficult to get.

I know first hand of someone that applied for state unemployment benefits in early January and they didn't get their first payment until the end of June. There were so many hurdles to jump through that it was almost as if the state didn't even want them to get the benefits they were entitled to. Given the fact that many (mostly, if not all, Republican) states have since purposefully cut off the expanded unemployment benefits paid for by the federal government, I think that the hurdle-jumping was done on purpose.

[Jedi Guy]

13. It's a shitty situation for tenants and landlords alike.

I haven't seen such comments here on DU, but elsewhere on the web I've seen comments demonizing "greedy" landlords. It seems like people have this idea that 100% of the rent landlords collect goes directly into their pockets when in reality landlords have plenty of costs they also have to sort out. Landlords have bills to pay just like everyone else.

So what's a landlord to do when a tenant, for whatever reason, can't pay the rent? Eat the costs themselves? Default on the mortgage? Neither of those are good options. Unfortunately eviction is sometimes the only option they have, since just not getting paid isn't in any way sustainable.

[twin_ghost]

14. The courts have ruled that the CDC can't interefere with private landlord contracts.

All those people that didn't or couldn't pay rent will have bad credit for seven years. It is a horrible situation. I was homeless for one year many moons ago so I know what these people are going through.

[Jose Garcia]

15. The courts have ruled that the CDC can't because Congress never gave it the power to do so