With eviction ban ended, White House urges states, landlords, tenants to get federal relief
With the country’s eviction moratorium over as of midnight Saturday, landlords should step up efforts to get federal relief, White House economic adviser Brian Deese said Sunday.
The comments came after Congress failed to extend the ban, which has prevented an estimated 2 million Americans from losing their homes during the pandemic.
Keeping the moratorium in place was a top priority for President Biden, who urged lawmakers to act over the weekend. But the House of Representatives adjourned Friday without taking action.
“The real issue here is how to get money out to renters who, through no fault of their own, are behind on their rent and to help landlords keep those renters in their home, which is a win-win,” Deese told “Fox News Sunday.”
Landlord organizations have opposed the moratorium, saying they’ve been struggling to make mortgage and other payments as tenants hold off on rent.
New York State previously extended its eviction moratorium through the end of August.
But like other states, it has struggled to distribute billions in federal funds for rent relief. Last week, Gov. Cuomo announced an overhaul of the rental assistance program, following Daily News reporting that only a small portion of $2 billion in federal funding has been delivered to struggling New York renters.
“The COVID pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on New Yorkers all across the state, and they need rental assistance now,” Cuomo said in a statement announcing the effort.
“To streamline this process, I’ve directed [the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance] to work with their vendor to disburse payments as quickly and efficiently as possible [so] we can deliver billions of dollars in rental assistance to New Yorkers who have been struggling to pay rent due to no fault of their own,” he added.
Nationwide, only about $3 billion of the $47 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program has been distributed.
“That money is there. The states have the tools, the localities have the tools and there’s no excuse,” Deese said. “They need to move that money to those renters and those landlords immediately.”
An eviction moratorium from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went into effect in September, with authorities saying the measure was needed to prevent people from becoming homeless and potentially spreading COVID.
The eviction ban was extended several times, with the Supreme Court rejecting a request to lift it in June. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that further extensions would have to come from Congress.
Democrats wanted to do so on Friday, but a Republican lawmaker blocked a move to extend the moratorium through a process known as unanimous consent. The Senate met Saturday but did not address the ban.
“With some cities and states demonstrating their ability to release these funds efficiently to tenants and landlords in need, there can be no excuse for any state or locality not to promptly deploy the resources that Congress appropriated to meet this critical need of so many Americans,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week.
With News Wire Services
