U.S. COVID-19 eviction ban expires, putting tenants at risk

WASHINGTON, July 31 (Reuters) – A pandemic-related U.S. government ban on residential evictions expired at midnight on Saturday, putting millions of U.S. tenants at risk of being forced out of their homes.

The expiration has been a blow to President Joe Biden, who last Thursday asked Congress to extend the moratorium, citing the raging Delta variant.

The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned on Friday without considering tenant protections after a Republican congressman blocked an offer to extend by unanimous consent until October 18. Democratic leaders said they lacked sufficient support to put the proposal to a formal vote.

The US Senate held a rare session on Saturday but did not address the deportation ban. The White House had made it clear that it would not unilaterally extend protections, arguing it did not have the legal authority to do so following a Supreme Court ruling in June.

More than 15 million people in 6.5 million U.S. households are currently behind on rent payments, according to a study by the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, which collectively owe more than $ 20 billion to owners.

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

Democratic Representative Cori Bush and others spent Friday night outside the United States Capitol to call attention to the issue.

She asked how parents could go to work and take care of the children if they were deported. “We cannot put people on the streets in a deadly global pandemic,” Bush said on Saturday.

Homeowner groups opposed the moratorium, and some homeowners struggled to keep up with mortgage, tax and insurance payments on properties without rental income.

A moratorium on evictions has largely been in place under various measures since late March 2020. The ban by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) went into effect in September 2020 to combat the spread of the disease. COVID-19 and preventing homelessness during the pandemic. . It has been extended several times, the last time until Saturday.

The CDC said in June it would not issue further extensions. A CDC spokeswoman confirmed the moratorium has expired but declined to comment further.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, explaining the need to extend the eviction ban, noted that of the $ 46.5 billion in rental relief previously approved by Congress, “only $ 3 billion was distributed to tenants “.

Late Saturday, Pelosi said lawmakers demanded that “the $ 46.5 billion provided by Congress be distributed quickly to tenants and landlords.”

Some Democratic lawmakers gathered outside Capitol Hill early Sunday to demand the ban be reinstated.

Some states like California and New York have chosen to extend the moratoriums on evictions beyond July 31. Federal agencies that fund rental housing on Friday urged owners of those properties to take advantage of assistance programs and avoid evicting tenants.

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

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.