COVID-19 affected millions of people living in the United States over the past year, causing many to struggle financially. With restrictions now lifting and the country opening back up, many realtors are asking for the U.S. Supreme Court to get rid of the eviction freeze immediately, so they can proceed with removing tenants who can no longer financially afford their rent.
What We Know:
- Congress placed a temporary ban on evictions when the pandemic started, which went through July 2020. With the support of former President Donald Trump, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put an eviction freeze in place through March. The Biden administration then decided to extend the freeze through June.
- The Alabama Association of Realtors is leading the charge in asking Chief Justice John Roberts to rule that the CDC has overstepped in placing the freeze on evictions. The brief that the group of relators sent to Roberts stated, “landlords have been losing over $13 billion every month under the moratorium, and the total effect of the CDC’s overreach may reach up to $200 billion if it remains in effect for a year.”
- According to The Hill, legal challenges have played out as corporate realtors have filed more than 56,000 eviction actions since the Trump administration’s eviction freeze started last year. During this time, tenants still struggling financially continue to receive federal aid from the government.
- U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, District of Columbia, stated last month that “the question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not.” NBC News reported a federal appeals court declined to lift the freeze despite Friedrich’s ruling.
- The Justice Department has stated that realtors didn’t claim “irreparable injury” from the freeze order and that they gave $46 billion in emergency rental assistance to help realtors during the pandemic.
- Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton believes the freeze “protects many renters who cannot make their monthly payments due to job loss or health care expenses. Scientific evidence shows that evictions exacerbate the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed more than half a million Americans, and the harm to the public that would result from unchecked evictions cannot be undone.”
Housing experts have stated that they’ve seen conflicting rulings at the district court level, with some agreeing with the CDC’s eviction freeze and others backing the realtors. As of now, no further information on whether the Supreme Court will approve the realtor group’s emergency request or if CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, will make a statement. Regardless of the outcome, there is no doubting that COVID-19 has affected both parties in this situation.
