Several progressive lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would reimpose a nationwide eviction moratorium at a time when deaths from COVID-19 are running at their highest levels since early March.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said the bill would direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to implement a ban on evictions in response to the COVID pandemic. It would also amend a section of the Public Health Service Act to grant permanent authority to Health and Human Services to implement an eviction moratorium to address public health crises.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority at the end of August allowed evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This pandemic isn’t over, and we have to do everything we can to protect renters from the harm and trauma of needless eviction, which upends the lives of those struggling to get back on their feet,” Warren said in a statement. “Pushing hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes will only exacerbate this public health crisis, and cause economic harm to families, their communities, and our overall recovery.”
Bush, who pressured Biden to extend the moratorium until the end of August and was once evicted herself, said the delta variant-fueled surge makes a moratorium critical.
“As the delta variant continues to force individuals to quarantine, close schools, and stifle businesses, we must do all we can to save lives. That starts with keeping every person safely housed,” she said. Three dozen other lawmakers supported the bill.
Eviction filings have begun to tick up since the moratorium was lifted but most advocates said a surge in actual evictions is still weeks away. Nearly 3.7 million people in the U.S. as of Aug. 30 said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. That is slightly higher than the numbers early in August.
Many tenants at risk of eviction are counting on emergency rental relief to keep them housed. But that money has been slow to reach them so pressure has increased to reimpose a moratorium.
The Treasury Department said last month that just over $5.1 billion of the estimated $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance — only 11% — has been distributed by states and localities through July. This includes some $3 billion handed out by the end of June and another $1.5 billion by May 31.
The prospects for the bill remain unclear but housing advocates said a moratorium was the best way to ensure more people are not forced from their homes.
“The federal eviction moratorium was a lifeline for millions of renters, and the last federal protection keeping many of them stably housed as they wait for emergency rental assistance to reach them,” said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “Without the moratorium in place, families will be pushed deeper into poverty, communities will struggle with increased spread of COVID-19, and our country will have a harder time containing the virus.”
Landlords, who have long opposed the moratorium, said it would only saddle renters with debt they can’t pay.
“Instead of responsibly addressing the crisis at hand, moratoriums leave renters strapped with insurmountable debt and housing providers left to unfairly hold the bag,” said Greg Brown, a senior vice president for government affairs at the National Apartment Association. “Ultimately, any effort to pursue additional moratoriums will only balloon the nation’s rental debt … and exacerbate the housing affordability crisis, permanently jeopardizing the availability of safe and affordable housing.”
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Several Democrat progressive lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would reimpose a nationwide eviction moratorium at a time when deaths from COVID-19 are running at their highest levels since early March. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said the bill would direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to implement a ban on evictions in response to the COVID pandemic.
HUH?? It appears that the entire socialist Democrat Party is as demented and deranges as their puppet president Biden.
These traitorous Democrats want to not allow the U.S. to evict the COVID-19 infected illegal immigrants back to their own country.
These Democrats want the U.S. to welcome COVID-19 and other disease infected Illegal immigrants into our country to spread their diseases to our citizens.
THEY ARE ALL just as evil and soul-less as joe is. THEY ALL worship the same deity of death, SATAN!
another reason for anyone to not get a job.why would anyone want to get up and have a routine of going to work,when they wiil make as much not having,too! another way of keeping us under control and not beng independent
AND if these cretins really want to help, fine. PAY OUT OF YOUR OWN bloody pockets, all the rent of these people.. AND TILL THEY DO, shut the hell up, about US Having to pay for it!
This isn’t going to work unless Biden just orders an illegal no evictions rule. That would work until the courts stop it.
I have a great idea. Since there are plenty of job openings all over the Country, why don’t the people renting find a job so they can pay their rent. The landlords have bills to pay to, so why are the landlords being strangled by the politician elitists?
What. Work.
HOW DARE YOU. Work is a white supremacist cuss word..
RHEEE!
Because they are trying to eliminate the middle class, ever since BHO was elected and continues today.