U.S. COVID-19 eviction ban expires, leaving renters at risk

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) – A pandemic-induced US government eviction ban expired at midnight Saturday, putting millions of American renters at risk of being forced out of their homes.

The expiry was a blow to President Joe Biden, who on Thursday, citing the angry Delta variant, made a final motion to Congress to extend the moratorium.

On Friday, the US House of Representatives adjourned without reviewing tenant protection after a Republican Congressman unanimously blocked an offer to extend it through October 18.

The US Senate held a rare Saturday meeting but did not address the eviction ban. The White House had made it clear that it would not unilaterally extend protection as it had no legal authority to do so following a Supreme Court ruling in June.

According to a study by the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, more than 15 million people in 6.5 million US households are currently in arrears with their rental payments and owe landlords together more than $ 20 billion.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said Saturday that “in every state in this country, families are currently sitting around their kitchen tables trying to figure out how to survive a devastating, disruptive and unnecessary eviction.”

Democratic MP Cori Bush and others spent Friday nights outside the US Capitol to raise awareness.

Workers destroy the furniture left by a tenant vacated after a 48-hour notice for violating the terms of her lease in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the United States, March 29, 2021. REUTERS / Brian Snyder

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She asked how parents could go to work and look after their children in the event of an eviction. “We cannot get people onto the streets in a deadly global pandemic,” Bush said on Saturday.

Landlord groups opposed the moratorium, and some landlords struggled to keep up with mortgage, tax, and insurance payments on property without rental income.

Since the end of March 2020, there has largely been an eviction moratorium as part of various measures. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ban went into effect in September 2020 to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prevent homelessness during the pandemic. It has been extended several times, most recently until Saturday.

CDC said in June it would not issue any more renewals. A CDC spokeswoman confirmed that the moratorium had expired but declined to comment.

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, when explaining the need to extend the eviction ban, said that of the $ 46.5 billion in rent relief previously approved by Congress, “only $ 3 billion has been paid out to tenants.”

Late on Saturday, Pelosi said lawmakers were calling for “the $ 46.5 billion congressional provision to be swiftly distributed to renters and landlords.”

Some Democratic MPs gathered outside the Capitol early Sunday to call for the ban to be reinstated.

Some states like California and New York have decided to extend eviction moratoriums beyond July 31st. Federal agencies funding rental apartments on Friday urged owners of those properties to avail themselves of aid programs and avoid eviction from tenants.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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