Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers instituted a moratorium on evictions, arguing that people needed to stay in their homes regardless of their ability to pay rent to control the spread of the disease and the economic impacts of lockdowns. A Congressionally instituted eviction moratorium, however, expired in July 2020. After Congress failed to pass an extension in time the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) then issued an emergency order keeping the moratoriums in place, citing the Public Health Service Act of 1944. That order proved controversial, pitting the welfare of renters against the potential income loss for landlords.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late August that the CDC extension was outside the agency’s authority, putting hundreds of thousands of American renters at risk of losing their housing.
“The CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination,” the court’s unsigned majority opinion said. “It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented, saying the decision could have harmful effects as the COVID-19 crisis continued to unfold. “These questions call for considered decision-making, informed by full briefing and argument,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote on behalf of the three dissenting justices. “Their answers impact the health of millions.”
An August Census Bureau survey found that more than 8 million people were behind on rent payments and more than 3.5 million people indicated that they were “very” or “somewhat likely” to be evicted in the next two months. While Congress appropriated $47 billion in rental assistance to keep landlords afloat, states have been slow to distribute that money.
The Biden administration also decried the court’s decision. “As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to Covid-19,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
The decision to extend the federal ban on evictions now moves to Congress, where Democrats are largely in favor of prolonging the moratorium to help safeguard renters who would be most affected by the decision.
“Tonight, the Supreme Court failed to protect the 11 million households across our country from violent eviction in the middle of a deadly global pandemic,” said Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.). “We already know who is going to bear the brunt of this disastrous decision: Black and brown communities, and especially Black women.”
Meanwhile Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) voiced his disagreement with the CDC’s August extension. “Even the president admitted today that the ‘bulk of constitutional scholars say . . . it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster,’” Toomey tweeted about the extension. “Congress appropriated $47 billion of rental assistance to address this exact problem. The admin’s time would be better spent dealing with its failure to get money owed to landlords rather than papering over its failures with illegal actions.”
The Supreme Court had previously ruled in June that the moratorium — originally set to expire in May — could remain in place for an additional month while Congress decided whether to authorize an additional extension. Democrats, however, failed to do so and called on the White House to act.
The Alabama and Georgia Associations of Realtors filed suit over the extension. Many large- and small-scale landlords spoke out about the economic hardship, including unpaid mortgages and growing debt, they are now facing as a result of the federal ban and applauded the Supreme Court’s August decision. “The government must move past failed policies and begin to seriously address the nation’s debt tsunami, which is crippling both renters and housing providers alike,” Bob Pinnegar, the president of the National Apartment Association, which counts large landlords among its members, told the New York Times.
After the federal eviction ban ended, several states and counties moved to initiate similar moratoriums. However, some experts argued that the slow distribution of aid as well as the variance among state policies made for an ineffective solution. “Renters must now rely on a patchwork of dissimilar state and local protections with various deadlines,” Hilary Silver, a sociology and public policy professor at The George Washington University, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. Without further federal action, the U.S. likely faces an impending escalation of evictions.
For more background, see the May 2020 issue of Congressional Digest on “Homelessness Policy.”
