President Donald Trump’s expansive new eviction ban will help some tenants delay the inevitable. But it’s missing a key ingredient that only lawmakers can supply: money.
“Ultimately, it creates new urgent pressure on Congress to get back to work and pass a final Covid 19 relief bill,” said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive officer of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “On its own, it’s a half measure.”
An eviction ban through the end of the year — enacted with the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to slow the virus’s spread — provides no new money for tenants, or for landlords to maintain their properties and pay their bills, including mortgages and local property taxes. It expands a CARES Act moratorium that expired last month, extending it to all properties, not just those financed with federal backing.
The order was immediately criticized by real estate industry groups but received some praise from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and other tenant advocates eager for some way to keep renters in place while the pandemic rages.
Rental Crisis
The U.S. is in the throes of a massive rental crisis that began with the spike in unemployment caused by coronavirus lockdowns that started in March. While Democrats in the House proposed $100 billion in renter relief, Congress has failed to agree on a plan to hold back evictions.
Roughly one in five American renters — between 19 million and 23 million people — are at risk of eviction by the end of September, according to an analysis by the Aspen Institute.
Trump’s move is terrible news for landlords who may struggle to keep tenants paying without even the threat of being able to evict those who don’t. About half of the 43 million rental units in the country are owned by small businesses that can’t survive long without money coming in.
Source: Prashant Gopal | Bloomberg
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