Eviction ban moratorium set to expire
The Biden administration announced Thursday it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.
The White House said President Joe Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium due to spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.
Instead, Biden called on “Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay.”
The moratorium was put in place last September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Given the recent spread of the delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” the White House said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available.”
The court mustered a bare 5-4 majority last month, to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear he would block any additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people nationwide in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.