Reactions To The New Eviction Moratorium

On August 3, 2021, just days after the government eviction moratorium expired, the CDC imposed a new eviction moratorium to temporarily suspend evictions for two months in counties where COVID-19 cases are proliferating.

While reacting to the new moratorium, President Joe Biden stated that the CDC directive “covers close to 90% of the American people who are renters."

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the new order is intended to target specific parts of the country where COVID-19 cases are fast rising, which would undoubtedly be worsened by mass evictions.

Although the economy is showing indications of improvement in some areas, the rebound has not benefited everyone evenly; as a result, many renters have not caught up on their bills. Housing experts, in their reactions, also say it's difficult to predict how many people will be issued eviction notices in the following days and weeks.

A study conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the spring discovered that 14.3 percent of 44.1 million renter households are yet to catch up on their rent, and 9.9 percent had little confidence in their ability to pay the next month's rent.

The CDC's moratorium has sparked fresh conflicts, putting landlords against tenants, Republicans against Democrats, and courts against housing advocates.

This "new moratorium" had become a subject for landlords and federal judges, who claimed the CDC lacked the power to maintain the block. As a result, the Alabama Association of Realtors led a group of landlords to contest the CDC's most recent moratoriums. The landlords requested the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court to overturn the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction moratorium. However, the Joe Biden administration maintained that the “new moratorium” is significantly different from the previous one.

Consequently, a federal judge in Washington expressed doubt that the Biden administration's new eviction moratorium will withstand a court challenge by the group of landlords.

Judge Dabney Friedrich of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia remarked that "It's really hard to conclude that there's not a degree of gamesmanship going on." She went on to say that the new order's scope and legal basis "is almost identical to the CDC's earlier order, as is the effect of it."

Nevertheless, on Thursday, August 26, 2021, the supreme courts rejected the Biden administration's newest eviction moratorium, claiming that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) lacked the authority to put an end to evictions across the states. The decision settled a political and legal disagreement that arose during a public health crisis, wherein the administration's shifting stances drew criticism from both rivals and allies.

According to the White House, the Biden administration is "disappointed" by the Supreme Court's ruling, and has urged states and localities to enact eviction moratoriums for at least the next two months to avoid eviction.

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