CDC announces limited, targeted eviction moratorium until early October

From [HERE] The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a fresh stop on certain evictions Tuesday, saying that evicting people could be detrimental to public health and would interfere with efforts to slow the pandemic.

The new moratorium comes after President Joe Biden and his administration allowed a previous freeze to expire, setting off fury among members of his own party.

The new ban applies to areas of the country with high or substantial transmission of Covid-19 and will last until October 3, according to the announcement.

"In the context of a pandemic, eviction moratoria -- like quarantine, isolation, and social distancing -- can be an effective public health measure utilized to prevent the spread of communicable disease. Eviction moratoria facilitate self-isolation and self-quarantine by people who become ill or who are at risk of transmitting COVID-19 by keeping people out of congregate settings and in their own homes," the statement read.

The eviction issue had escalated into a contentious dispute between the White House and progressive Democrats, who accused the President of saddling them with passing an extension at the eleventh hour. Biden's aides said everyone should have known the moratorium was expiring and that congressional action was needed.

Left in the lurch were millions of Americans behind on their rent because of the pandemic still gripping parts of the country.

The resolution will stop short of another nationwide eviction freeze, but instead will be more limited in scope, targeted to places with high Covid spread.

A source familiar with the effort said the announcement would cover 80% of US counties and 90% of the US population.

Biden's aides had repeatedly insisted he lacked legal authority to renew the existing moratorium, citing a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh from late June that said another extension would require congressional approval.

The President said earlier Tuesday the new eviction ban would be different from the previous one. But he openly acknowledged it would likely face legal scrutiny, and said the time it takes for the court process to unfold will allow for emergency rental assistance to reach troubled tenants.

Biden said he'd sought out constitutional scholars to advise him on a path forward after the Supreme Court's ruling, and said the "bulk" of them warned an eviction moratorium was "not likely to pass constitutional muster."

But he said "several key scholars" told him it might, and he decided it would be worth the risk if it allowed extra time for already-allocated emergency rental funds to reach Americans who need them. [MORE]