A 20-page order from a federal judge, signed and delivered on May 5, has underscored the potential risk of imminent homelessness for millions of Americans.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich determined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went beyond its legal authority when it issued a nationwide eviction moratorium last year to protect renters who were being financially ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and who may have been sent packing from their homes.
The protection, which forestalled eviction during the pandemic, began under the Trump administration and was set to expire June 30 under the Biden administration, which supports the moratorium.
Judge Friedrich begged off of analyzing the merits of the program, ruling precisely and narrowly that the CDC had overstepped the power accorded the agency by the Public Health Service Act.
The Biden administration is expected to appeal the decision, which was prompted by landlords and property owners who have decried the moratorium for placing an undue financial burden on them.
Did the CDC truly exceed its legal authority? Most likely. But time will tell. And, indeed, it will take time for the president’s appeal to wend its way through the legal appeal process. In the meantime, the prospect of being thrust onto the streets looms for some of our country’s most vulnerable citizens.
There is no question that the eviction moratorium shifted the financial burden from struggling renters to property owners who, likewise, were plunged into choppy financial straits by the inability of their tenants to pay their way. The question for the CDC was who could better shoulder the burden — and the agency landed on the property owners. It was a decision that could not continue over the long term. It was a decision that should have been a temporary placeholder — literally, holding a place for those facing the prospect of homelessness.
What was needed, then and now, is federal emergency rental assistance. And that assistance was approved by Congress, a legislative-branch decision that essentially endorsed the CDC moratorium, not only for the benefit of struggling renters but for the nation as a whole. The eviction moratorium during a historic national crisis not only has kept people in their homes but also has forestalled broad and deep impacts on the country’s social service network.
The relief has been approved. But it has not yet made its way to the people.
A legal stay of the moratorium decision is needed. A stay will give those at risk of homelessness the time for emergency assistance to reach the hands of those who need it. The U.S. Treasury Department is in the process of distributing close to $47 billion in rental and utility relief.
The moratorium had critics from its inception.
Tenant advocates said the wording was unclear and too open for inconsistent interpretation by local judges. Landlord advocates said it left the property owners high and dry. Resulting legal challenges yielded split judicial decisions.
The mixed judicial reviews warrant a stay in the process while the matter is sorted and relief is delivered.
No one benefits from stoking the fear — let alone the actual circumstance — of homelessness.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
