Andrew Lloyd Beaver PA – Last year amidst the pandemic, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) established a federal eviction moratorium. Households across the country, who had been impacted by major financial burdens such as job loss, faced a dire situation: figuring out how to come up with their monthly rent. Fearing that loss of homes caused by evictions would increase the spread of Covid-19, the government took action to temporarily ban landlords from forcing their tenants out of their homes on the basis of unpaid rent. Andrew Lloyd Beaver PA was afraid of the mass evictions if the government didn’t step in: “That was our best option at the time.”
To qualify for the program, tenants had to meet some base level qualifications such as showing that their income (as an individual or household) was directly impacted in some way or another by the restrictions of the pandemic. It was originally put in place on September 1, 2020; soon thereafter, burdens on tenants began to increase as the CDC issued guidance that allowed landlords to legally challenge declarations by tenants.
Since first being released, the program has had multiple extensions beyond its original December 31, 2020 deadline. An emergency relief measure in December of last year extended it through January of 2021, while other continuing measures ended up allowing the moratorium to stay in place until July 31 of this year. These were enacted to help maintain stay at home orders and social distancing guidelines as cases continued to be prevalent.
While many of the 11.4 million people across the country who are currently behind on rent hoped that this would be extended once again, the White House has officially stated that they will not be initiating anymore extensions. Andrew Lloyd Beaver PA says this decision has led many people nationwide to fear a sudden upcoming wave of evictions that could be detrimental to the livelihoods of an array of households who were taking advantage of the protections.
What the eviction moratorium ending means for landlords
While much of the attention has been on the tenants who were facing risk of eviction, many landlords across the country have expressed concerns over the losses they have seen as a result of the measure. Groups such as the National Apartment Association — a landlord lobbyist organization — have even begun legal proceedings against the federal government. They claim that landlords are responsible for almost $27 billion in debt caused by unpaid rent that is not covered by federal rental assistance programs.
Unlike tenants, the majority of landlords were not financially supported by the government. This has led many of them to fall behind on mortgage payments and other necessary funds required to keep their rental properties from going under. These issues have especially been a problem for smaller landlords. While about half of the rental housing market is overseen by large corporations with the cash flow available to protect against these concerns, the remaining portion is owned by small, “mom and pop” landlords that have been struggling to stay afloat.
Andrew Lloyd says the ending of the moratorium will bring a sense of normalcy back to landlords. Although there are certain states that are planning on continuing a ban on evictions and other similar proceedings on their own accord, most property owners will be able to take tenants who continue to not pay their rent following the August deadline to court. These actions can also be carried out to receive back rent that may still be owed as a result of the missing payments.
What the eviction moratorium end means for tenants
As the moratorium comes to an end, millions are at risk of being evicted. Because landlords will soon have the ability to proceed with evictions, renters all around the country are scrambling to figure out ways in which they can protect themselves. In fact, a census survey conducted earlier this month found that more than 3 million renters claim that they are likely to be evicted within the next two months; other data from the survey found that nearly 5 million tenants won’t be able to cover the rent for the month of August.
For many, the program was a life saver that reduced financial stress and decreased the number of burdens experienced by the household. The freedom gave suffering parties the opportunity to save this money for other necessary expenses that had arisen as the quarantine and social distancing measures continued. This was especially true for minority communities with greater amounts of renting individuals such as Black and Latino Americans.
A persistent worry among many of these individuals has revolved around figuring out what to do about back rent payments. Soon, landlords will be able to not only push out tenants who are behind on payments, but also take them to court in attempts to receive payment that they may have missed during the span of the moratorium. Additionally, fears about reduced credit scores due to missing payments have also risen. While being behind on these payments can be detrimental to credit reports, not all landlords report these missed payments to credit agencies (particularly those with a smaller portfolio of units). Evictions themselves can be a prominent issue because of how negatively they impact one’s public record (it can be quite difficult to find an accepting landlord in a good neighborhood with a past eviction).
Due to an inability to continue the extension, the Biden administration has turned its sights to efforts that will increase the distribution of relief funds and the creation of community support that will aid in minimizing eviction consequences.
Organizations such as the National Low Income Housing Coalition and National Housing Conference offer resources for tenants to connect with rental assistance programs on state and local levels. These are initiatives meant to target these problems and assist those most in need. For those suffering under these circumstances, it is important to look into the options specifically offered by your city or state so as to receive more in depth guidance on how to navigate these upcoming problems.
Andrew Lloyd from Beaver, PA writes about everything. Get more information about the oncoming eviction moratorium.
