Race is on for federal help for tenants
BOSTON – The recent court ruling striking down a national eviction moratorium has heightened concerns that tenants won’t receive tens of billions of dollars in promised federal aid in time to avoid getting kicked out of their homes.
A federal judge on Wednesday found the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority when it imposed the moratorium last year. Housing advocates believe the ban saved lives and not only should continue, but be extended past its initial June 30 deadline.
For now, the moratorium remains: A judge stayed the court’s order following an appeal from the Justice Department.
Without the moratorium, advocates say, the only thing standing between many tenants and eviction is the nearly $50 billion allocated by Congress for rental assistance. Advocates say very few tenants have received any of the money – which is up to individual states to distribute – and they fear it won’t get to the neediest people in time if the moratorium is scrapped.
“Unfortunately, rental assistance funds are not reaching struggling families nearly as quickly as is needed,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for the Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston. “Here in Massachusetts, tenants report that submitting a rental assistance application is like sending it into a black hole.”
The government didn’t do much better last year, when several states failed to spend the federal coronavirus relief monies they had set aside for rental assistance, the advocates said. Among them were New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi and Kansas.
Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said some of the same problems are being seen now, namely landlords refusing to participate, programs refusing to give money directly to tenants and cumbersome application processes.
“The CDC moratorium is essential to our efforts to prevent people from getting evicted before they can get rental assistance,” said Caitlin Cedfeldt, a staff attorney at Legal Aid of Nebraska.
Landlords, many of whom have challenged the moratorium, say the court’s decision increases pressure on the federal and state governments to speed up rental assistance distribution.
“Instead of propping up legally-questionable policies, government at every level needs to cut the red tape and focus on distributing the $46 billion in rental assistance efficiently,” Bob Pinnegar, president & CEO of the National Apartment Association, said in an email interview. “Getting rental assistance funds into the hands of those renters and rental housing providers who need it most is the only way to prevent irrevocable harm to our nation’s housing supply.”
President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday announced changes aimed at doing just that. Government agencies implementing the rental relief program will be required to offer assistance directly to renters if landlords choose not to participate, said Gene Sperling. Sperling is the White House coordinator of Biden’s American Rescue Plan, a sweeping, $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package Congress passed to help the country defeat the coronavirus and nurse the economy back to health. Also, the waiting time for delivering the assistance to renters is cut in half if landlords aren’t involved, Sperling said.