A federal court has vacated the CDC eviction moratorium. What does that mean for NC?
A federal court ruled Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t have the legal authority to enforce its nationwide eviction moratorium, but a provision in a North Carolina executive order will keep the moratorium in effect in the state.
The CDC order, which took effect last September and has been extended until June 30, bars evictions due to nonpayment of rent from happening nationwide.
The intent of the order is curb the spread of COVID-19 from evicted tenants who have lost income due to the pandemic.
One study showed that nearly 15,000 cases and over 300 deaths in North Carolina resulted from evictions last summer, when the state didn’t have a moratorium, the N&O reported in December.
Despite the public health concerns, Wednesday’s court decision from a federal court in Washington, D.C. ,said the CDC had overstepped its authority.
“The question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not,” the order states.
But an executive order in October from Gov. Roy Cooper stops courts outside of North Carolina from affecting enforcement of the CDC order in the state.
The federal court in Washington, D.C., does not have jurisdiction over North Carolina.
“If any court without jurisdiction over the State of North Carolina enjoins or otherwise blocks or modifies the CDC Order, in whole or in part, this Executive Order shall continue to apply, and this Executive Order shall continue to provide the protections listed in the CDC Order,” Cooper’s order states.
Dory MacMillan, Cooper’s press secretary, told the N&O in an email that the state’s eviction moratorium, which is line with the CDC order, will remain in effect until June 30.
“Today’s ruling has no impact on the governor’s executive order providing protection from residential evictions for nonpayment of rent,” MacMillan said. “The state continues to work to help people stay in their homes during the pandemic.”
The federal Department of Justice is pushing for the moratorium to remain in effect as well.
DOJ director of public affairs Anthony Coley said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon that DOJ has appealed the court’s decision and has requested that the moratorium remain in effect until the appeal is settled.
And while a moratorium continues in North Carolina, Isaac Sturgill, an attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina, told the N&O that Wednesday’s court decision should worry tenants in North Carolina.
“It’s not a good sign,” Sturgill said. “The worry is that it could lead to other emboldened landlord groups to make challenges.”
He said there are arguments on both sides for the CDC moratorium, but the tension from his perspective boils down to policy priority.
“There are clear studies that show that homelessness and not having a home to stay at does exacerbate the virus. So it’s kind of a policy question of that important need bounced against a lot of landlords that are really financially hurting right now because they’re not collecting the rents and they’re facing their own financial issues,” Sturgill said. “It’s not only a legal battle, but it’s a battle of which policy to put priority on.”
Landlords and housing advocates push for rental assistance
Landlords have argued against the order since it has been in place due to the financial burden it puts on housing providers.
“We’ve said from the beginning that the real solution to this issue is rental assistance, and not a moratorium, which we think has been counterproductive,” said Dustin Engelken, government affairs director at the Triangle Apartment Association, in an interview with The N&O.
Federal stimulus bills have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to North Carolina in rental assistance, but that money has been largely unallocated.
North Carolina’s Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions program, or HOPE, started accepting applications for rental assistance in October with $167 million in federal stimulus funds.
The program ran out of money after 42,000 applications in only a month.
Even with nearly $600 million allocated in rental assistance from federal stimulus in December, the HOPE program hasn’t accepted any applications since.
Laura Hogshead, executive director of the state Office of Recovery and Resilience, which operates the HOPE program, has said this is due to a bill from the state legislature that imposed administrative restraints that make it difficult to allocate the funds, the N&O reported in early March.
Samuel Gunter, executive director of the affordable housing advocacy organization N.C. Housing Coalition, told the N&O that the focus should be getting the rental assistance funding out as soon as possible.
“We’re still waiting to open up programs. There’s money ready to go, and that needs to be getting to landlords,” Gunter said. “There’s the eviction protection side of the equation, but that’s there because the money’s not flowing. The money needs to be flowing.”
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