The Trump administration has announced that it will ban evictions through the end of the year under an executive order.
The action will direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the issue of evictions nationwide and would impose criminal penalties on landlords who violate the ban.
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The order instructs the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC to consider whether stopping evictions will help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The new evictions ban covers tenants who certify that they have lost “substantial” income, and that they make no more than $99,000 in 2020, or that they received a stimulus check. Renters must also show that they are making their “best efforts” to pay as much of their rent as they can.
Further, the tenants must also certify that eviction could cause them to become homeless or to potentially “double-up” in quarters with others.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the action will affect up to 40 million renters. The new ban is broader than the one included in the CARES Act, which only covered renters in federally-financed rental units.
“The very least the federal government ought to do is assure each of us that we won’t lose our homes in the middle of a global pandemic,” National Low Income Housing Coalition CEO and President Diane Yentel told POLITICO.
“The administration’s action would do so and will provide relief from the growing threat of eviction for millions of anxious families,” said Yentel, a frequent critic of the Trump administration.
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However, other advocates warn that without additional financial assistance, the problem is only postponed until January, possibly at the beginning of a potential Joe Biden presidency.
National Housing Conference President and CEO David Dworkin said the order “kicks the crisis down the road to January when the weather will be colder, and more people will be in even greater crisis.”
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