The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called for a temporary halt in the eviction of tenants to slow the spread of COVID-19.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky determined this week that the evictions of tenants could be detrimental to public health control measures. The move earned mixed reviews in the Senate. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, praised the decision.
“No one should be left without a home, especially during a pandemic. Director Walensky’s extension of the CDC’s eviction moratorium, which has provided a lifeline to millions of renters who might face eviction and increased risk of COVID-19, was absolutely essential,” Brown said. “Now we need to make sure that renters are protected by the moratorium as state and local agencies distribute nearly $47 billion in rental and utility assistance provided in the American Rescue Plan and December assistance package. I encourage the Biden-Harris Administration and CDC to use all the tools at their disposal to protect renters and public health and urge states and localities to get this assistance to renters quickly.”
However, the leading Republicans on the Banking Committee took issue with the action by the CDC Director.
“As I said when the Trump administration created it, an eviction moratorium lacks both a legal basis and an economic justification. Moreover, the entire purpose for replacing lost income with direct rental assistance, thousands of dollars in stimulus checks, and unemployment compensation that pays more than work itself, was so people could pay their bills,” U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-PA) said.
Toomey said it could cause unintended consequences, including higher rents and fewer low- to moderate-income housing options overall.
“Landlords must now account for the possibility that moratoriums like this can occur at any time in the future. This could lead to landlords raising rent costs to help offset future losses and to some abandoning investing in residential housing completely. Instead of extending the CDC moratorium, the Biden administration should be focused on making the rental assistance program more workable,” Toomey added.
In related news, Dave Uejio, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Rebecca Slaughter, the acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission, are working to stop illegal evictions.
“Staff at both agencies will be monitoring and investigating eviction practices, particularly by major multistate landlords, eviction management services, and private equity firms, to ensure that they are complying with the law. Evicting tenants in violation of the CDC, state, or local moratoria, or evicting or threatening to evict them without apprising them of their legal rights under such moratoria may violate prohibitions against deceptive and unfair practices, including under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. We will not tolerate illegal practices that displace families and expose them—and by extension all of us—to grave health risks,” Uejio and Slaughter said.