BOSTON — The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled it could only be extended until the end of the month. In response, Maine is expanding its renter assistance program.
The Maine State Housing Authority, also known as MaineHousing, issued a statement Thursday saying it will expand eligibility for renter assistance as a result of the moratorium ending.
Effective Monday, the program’s eligibility will be expanded from those unable to pay rent because of the coronavirus pandemic to those unable to pay rent for any reason during the pandemic. It also is increasing the total number of months a household can receive assistance from 15 months to 18 months.
“These program changes mean more Maine people could get the help they need for a longer period of time,” said Daniel Brennan, director of MaineHousing. “We’ve heard from tenants and landlords alike that this program is truly making a difference to help keep people housed. (The program) is helping take care of rent and utility bills that have weighed on people for months. We hope this assistance gives them some stability, which is so desperately needed right now.”
The program, which launched on March 1 of this year, has helped 9,286 Maine households with $46.2 million in paid and approved funding, MaineHousing said.
The White House said President Biden would have liked to have extended the federal eviction moratorium because of the spread of the delta variant. Instead, Biden called on “Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay.”
The moratorium was implemented in September by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Given the recent spread of the delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” the White House said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available.”
The court mustered a bare majority, 5-4 last month, to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear that he would block any additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
In the House, a bill was introduced Thursday to extended the moratorium until the end of the year. But the prospect of a legislative solution remained unclear.
By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, had said in June that it would be the last time the moratorium would be extended when she set the deadline for July 31. It was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.
Housing advocates and some lawmakers have called for the moratorium to be extended, due to the increase in coronavirus cases and the fact so little rental assistance has been distributed.
Congress has allocated nearly $47 billion in rental assistance that is supposed to go to help tenants pay off months of back rent. But so far, only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion has been distributed through June by states and localities. Some states like New York have distributed almost nothing while several have only approved a few million.
“The confluence of the surging delta variant with 6.5 million families behind on rent and at risk of eviction when the moratorium expires demands immediate action,” said Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The public health necessity of extended protections for renters is obvious. If federal court cases made a broad extension impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed properties.”
The trouble with rental assistance has prompted the Biden administration to hold several events in the past month aimed at pressuring states and cities to increase their rental assistance distribution, coax landlords to participate and make it easier for tenants to get money directly.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also has released an open letter to state courts around the country encouraging them to pursue measures that would keep eviction cases out of the courts. On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled a tool that allows tenants to find information about rental assistance in their area.
Despite these efforts, some Democratic lawmakers had demanded the administration extend the moratorium.
“This pandemic is not behind us, and our federal housing policies should reflect that stark reality. With the United States facing the most severe eviction crisis in its history, our local and state governments still need more time to distribute critical rental assistance to help keep a roof over the heads of our constituents,” Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Jimmy Gomez of California and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in a joint statement.
But landlords, who have opposed the moratorium and challenged it repeatedly in court, were against any extension. They have argued the focus should be on speeding up the distribution of rental assistance.
This week, the National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit asking for $26 billion in damages due to the impact of the moratorium.
The NAA “has long held that eviction moratoria are fundamentally flawed policies, leaving renters saddled with insurmountable debt and rental housing providers unfairly holding the bag despite unprecedented efforts to keep their residents housed over the past 18 months,” Bob Pinnegar, the president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.
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