CDC issued a new ban after protest, prohibiting the eviction of most American renters | Housing News

After Congress failed to take action on the expired national mandatory eviction ban, President Joe Biden sought to take action.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new 60-day moratorium on rental eviction orders, The U.S. public health agency said this will protect about 90% of Americans.

Tuesday’s announcement is in COVID-19 cases surge Related to the spread of Delta variants, and after the CDC’s July 31st expiration Previous ban Millions of tenants who were unable to pay rent during the pandemic were forced to relocate.

The CDC said in a statement that the new ban is particularly applicable to US counties where the virus is “highly community-spread”.

Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “The emergence of the Delta variant has led to a rapid acceleration in community transmission in the United States, putting more Americans at greater risk, especially when they are not vaccinated. Circumstances.”

President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that the new eviction ban is designed to provide renters and landlords with more time to obtain financial assistance through federal aid programs administered by states and localities.

Biden said the goal is to avoid driving “someone out of the street,” keeping family members in their apartment, “children in the same school district,” and providing people with opportunities to re-employ to “pay the rent.”

CDC’s measures drew applause from Democratic lawmakers Pushed the White House The suspension was resumed, saying that starting this week, millions of disadvantaged Americans will be forced to leave their homes.

“Today is a particularly relief day,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Countless families in the United States have eliminated the imminent fear of being deported and driven into the street.”

After the Congressional Chamber left Washington, DC for a month-long recess, a small group of progressive Democratic lawmakers led by Representative Corey Bush camped on the steps of the US House of Representatives to protest the official inaction of the deportation ban.

U.S. Representative Corey Bush camped outside the U.S. Capitol for several days to protest the expiration of the pandemic ban on deportation [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]

“We can take vacations, we can take vacations as the House of Representatives, and millions of people — more than 11 million people — may eventually be forced to leave their homes. There is no way… there is absolutely no way,” Bush told MSNBC News on Tuesday media.

Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has no right to extend an emergency moratorium for deporting people from their homes during a pandemic without special authorization from Congress.

Biden said that constitutional scholars dispute the scope of court rulings, which reflects the uncertainty among government officials about their legal authority.

But U.S. Democratic Representative Maxine Waters questioned whether the Supreme Court’s decision was decisive and wrote on Twitter that “every minute wasted means that another family may be forced to take to the streets”.

“Biden, now #ExtendTheMoratorium!” she wrote on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court did not make a ruling on the legality of the CDC’s suspension of deportation, or even accepted the case. Every minute wasted means that another family may be forced to live on the street. Biden, #ExtendTheMoratorium Now!

-Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) August 3, 2021

Biden and other U.S. lawmakers hope that such an extension will provide more time to expedite the allocation of $46.5 billion in rent relief to tenants and landlords that Congress has allocated to U.S. states.

Biden said: “When it is filed, it may give some extra time, and we will pay the 45 billion dollars to those who actually owe rent and have no money.”

He also called on state and local governments to extend or implement state and local deportation bans within the next two months. Such bans have covered approximately one-third of the United States.

At the same time, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday, “In my opinion, it seems that there is no need to take any additional legislative action to transfer the funds that have been provided there, so that the problem can be solved.”

According to a study by the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Deportation Defense Project, more than 6.5 million American families are currently in arrears of $20 billion in rent.