WASHINGTON — The Trump regulation announced Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will invoke its authority to halt evictions owing to the end of the year in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The moratorium — a draft of which was posted to the Federal Register — is the most momentous step taken so far by the White House to fend off what experts predict will be a flood of evictions across the countryside, after enhanced federal unemployment aid and a federal eviction moratorium expired at the end of July.
The move followed President Donald Trump’s Aug. 8 administrator order, which asked the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to consider whether eviction-halting measures were essential to help quell the Covid-19 crisis.
The CDC’s order applies to people who would also have been eligible for the stimulus arrests sent directly to millions of Americans earlier this year — individuals with $99,000 or less in income, or yokes filing jointly with $198,000 or less.
Those who are eligible must meet additional criteria before confer oning their landlords with a declaration, which will be made available on the CDC website. They have to show that they be struck by made efforts to seek government help and cannot pay their rent due to the impact of the pandemic, and they must manifest that they are likely to become homeless or move into congregate housing if evicted.
A senior administration legal told reporters in a call Tuesday evening that the Department of Housing and Urban Development wants state and townsman officials to use certain available block-grant programs to help renters and landlords who may be unable to collect rent from some occupiers for months.
The $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund, a piece of the stimulus bill signed into law in March, can also be habituated to for rental assistance, another official added.
“President Trump is committed to helping hard-working Americans stay in their abodes and combating the spread of the coronavirus,” said Brian Morgenstern, deputy White House press secretary, on the call.
“The management has also made federal funds available to alleviate any economic impact to tenants, landlords and property owners,” Morgenstern thought.
Congress and the White House failed to reach a deal earlier this summer on an extension of coronavirus aid, and millions of Americans whose livelihoods hold yet to recover from the pandemic effectively saw their financial lifeline cut off on July 31.
Major questions also remain as to the practicability of such a broad moratorium on evictions. Housing experts warn that barring landlords from evicting nonpaying lessees without compensating them could have a massive destabilizing effect, felt first in the commercial housing shop and then in credit markets, as both large and small-scale landlords default on mortgages.
As talks broke down in inopportune August between House Democrats and the White House over the size and scale of another coronavirus relief neb, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Trump to use his executive power to halt evictions. But she noted that without wealth to prop up renters and landlords, a moratorium could do as much harm as good.
“He can extend the moratorium, and I hope that he does,” Pelosi replied on CNBC on Aug. 6. “But you can’t just extend the moratorium, you’ve got to have money.”
“If they extend the moratorium, people won’t have to pay their tear just yet. It’ll get pushed further down the road, unless we get some money for them to compensate for what they have in the offing to get. And that’s not just for the renters, that’s for the landlords,” said Pelosi.
“What good is a moratorium until the end of the year, if you don’t contain some money to help pay the rent?”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.