Biden extends eviction moratorium until July 31, ‘the final extension,’ CDC says

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Answering calls from tenants rights groups, the Biden administration has extended the United States’ eviction moratorium for another month. But officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this will likely be the final reprieve.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed the order Thursday keeping the moratorium in place through July 31, staving off eviction for potentially millions of renters who were laid off during the pandemic and have struggled to access rent relief programs. The moratorium was scheduled to expire on June 30, but housing experts and Democratic lawmakers urged President Biden to give cities and counties more time to disburse the billions of dollars in rental assistance money that was provided by Congress.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health. Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said in a statement.

However, the CDC added, “this is intended to be the final extension.”

The moratorium, which was issued last September, has been a crucial defense for the country’s renters, especially in Florida where there is no state eviction moratorium and the eviction process is fast-paced. When former President Trump first issued the moratorium, it was slated to last only until the end of 2020, but it has been extended multiple times.

The extra month will give tenants more time to apply for the latest round of federally-funded rental assistance — $46 billion under the American Rescue Plan — and local governments more time to disburse it, Central Florida advocates said.

“They need to apply. The money is out there,” said Breezi Hicks, a staff attorney at Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, which helps low-income tenants facing eviction. “And I do want to dispel the myth that just because you’ve already applied [for an earlier program] doesn’t mean you can’t apply again. It’s not one and done.”

Her agency will guide tenants through the application process as well as represent them in court in eviction proceedings.

The Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition, a network of over 850 local, state and national groups led by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, as well as a group of 41 federal lawmakers penned letters to President Biden warning that an estimated 6 million people were behind on rent last month, according to data from the Census Bureau. The groups said lifting the moratorium before the American Rescue Plan aid can be used would “undermine the historic investments Congress and the Biden administration have provided to respond to this crisis.”

Those lawmakers also urged Biden and the CDC to strengthen the moratorium by making its protections automatic. Currently, tenants must sign a special document — which is available in a dozen languages — and give it to the court and their landlord. It attests they have been financially affected by the pandemic and cannot pay rent, have tried to get government assistance and make partial payments, and will become homeless or have to move in with friends or family if they are evicted.

Despite legal challenges from landlord and realtor groups, the CDC argues that freezing evictions is necessary to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, which so far has claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans. Nina B. Witkofsky, acting chief of staff for the CDC at time the order was issued, said people who are evicted may be forced to double-up with friends or family, go to homeless shelters or live on the streets, possibly exposing them to the virus and increasing the chances they’d spread it to others.

Research by Eviction Lab, a nonprofit that’s been tracking evictions across the U.S. during the pandemic, has confirmed that fear, finding that neighborhoods with high eviction rates also had lower vaccination rates. An analysis of court and Census Bureau data by the Orlando Sentinel and Shimberg Center for Housing Studies also found that in Central Florida zip codes with high concentrations of Black residents, the eviction rate was much higher than in mostly white areas.

“The impact of the federal moratorium cannot be understated, and the need to strengthen and extend it is an urgent matter of health, racial, and economic justice,” lawmakers said in their letter.

In Central Florida, the pandemic has only exacerbated an already critical shortage of affordable rental housing as low-wage workers for the theme parks and hospitality industry have faced long periods of unemployment. The Heart of Florida United Way reports that, in the past 30 days alone, 3,100 people have called the agency’s 2-1-1 helpline for housing assistance.

Judge Eric DuBois of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties said simply applying for rental assistance may be enough to pause an eviction proceeding — if a tenant provides documentation to the court.

“I don’t want to give carte blanche,” he said, “but my conversation with my colleagues would be that if someone told the judge that they had an application pending ... I don’t see [the judge] kicking someone out.”

Most authorities expect legal challenges to the moratorium’s extension, though those would likely take longer to resolve than the additional month that the moratorium offers. Currently, the federal government is appealing a ruling from U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich in Washington D.C. who said the CDC overstepped its authority when it halted evictions. The New York Times previously reported that there was some concern from the White House that if it loses the appeal while the moratorium is still in effect, that “could expose the order to a ruling that could affect executive actions during future crises.”

But Chip Tatum, CEO of the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando, said each missed rental payment is already having consequences for landlords and that an extension will likely worsen the existing rental housing shortage.

“There are some pretty scary statistics out there right now about a lot of these single-family owners selling off their [rental] assets, either through necessity, because they’re not getting the rental income that they need, or because they’re just concerned about their ability to manage their investment,” he said. “And the longer this thing persists, the less encouraged they are going to be to maintain that rental property, which we really need.”

If nothing else, tenants with overdue rent need to talk to their landlords about their situation, Tatum said.

“We totally get it — some folks are just afraid,” he said. “But what we’ve heard from our members is that they’re still willing to work with the residents impacted by this, but the tenants need to communicate. They need to enter into some agreements with the property owners so everybody’s reading off the same sheet of music.”

cglenn@orlandosentinel.com ; ksantich@orlandosentinel.com