Biden moves to stave off mass evictions after moratorium expires

President Joe Biden and top White House officials sought Monday to stave off a wave of evictions after the expiration of a federal moratorium, pressing federal, state and local government agencies to act quickly to stop tenants from losing their homes.

The push comes amid intensifying criticism from liberals within his own party, who have complained the White House waited too long to ask Congress to pass legislation extending the moratorium. And it underscores the challenge the administration has faced in distributing billions of dollars in pandemic assistance through bureaucracies around the country.

Biden’s request Sunday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to consider another extension of an evictions moratorium - as requested by some Democrats on Capitol Hill - was resisted by the agency’s leaders, who said they were unable to legally justify even a narrow ban following a Supreme Court ruling last month.

Biden asked the agency to consider a 30-day moratorium focused on counties with high or substantial spread of coronavirus, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Monday.

Gene Sperling, the White House’s administrator for its pandemic-relief programs, said he was among the aides concerned that barreling forward with an extension that would later be ruled unconstitutional could endanger other pandemic-assistance programs.

Instead, Sperling and other White House aides encouraged states to use money — that Psaki noted they had received “long ago” — under a $47 billion rental assistance program to keep people in their homes. Many states have been slow to disburse the aid, which came outside traditional channels of housing assistance.

Sperling urged landlords to seek money from the rental assistance program before initiating evictions. The program can provide up to 18 months of current and back rent, he said, making landlords “completely whole.”

“There is no excuse for any state or locality not to promptly deploy the resources that Congress appropriated to meet the critical need of so many Americans,” Psaki said.

But the White House’s attempts to pressure state and local governments — while also blaming the Trump administration for burdensome guidelines for the rent aid — reinforced the dire political and economic stakes now facing the administration.

The White House has acknowledged that those at risk of losing their housing are particularly at risk to the surging delta variant of the coronavirus, and mass evictions may imperil Biden’s ambitions for an economic recovery that buoys low-income and middle-class Americans.

The issue has also become a cause célèbre for progressives in the Democratic Party who have been slow to embrace Biden. Some lawmakers slept on the steps of the U.S. Capitol overnight Friday to protest the end of the eviction moratorium. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat among the demonstrators, said she pressed Kamala Harris on the issue as the vice president departed the Capitol on Monday.

Supreme Court Ruling

The administration is constrained by a Supreme Court ruling in June that allowed an extension of the moratorium until July 31. The deciding justice on the 5-4 decision, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote in an opinion that any further extensions would require congressional action.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was unable on Friday to muster enough votes from fellow House Democrats to extend the moratorium, something Biden had urged the day before.

The House instead adjourned and its members left Washington for a recess scheduled through Sept. 20.

Pelosi wrote to Biden over the weekend to ask for the moratorium to be extended through Oct. 18. She said in a statement Monday that she supported the White House’s effort to find legal authorities for a further ban and was pleased by the pressure on states to provide rental assistance.

“House members are hard at work in their districts to ensure that these funds are immediately disbursed to the landlords and the families to avoid eviction,” she said.

About 7.4 million households are behind on rent, according to the latest Census Bureau survey. About 3.6 million say they’re either somewhat or very likely to face eviction in the next two months.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will talk Tuesday to House Democrats about getting the rental assistance out to more tenants.

Yellen, according to officials who received the meeting notice, is expected to discuss the slow disbursement of funds by state and local governments, something that has become a growing frustration for lawmakers. The White House on Friday called on states and localities to distribute the funds “immediately.”

The Treasury Department didn’t elaborate on Yellen’s meeting beyond confirming the appearance.

The first tranche of funds, about $25 billion, had been transferred to state and local jurisdictions by early February. But only 6% of that money had been disbursed to tenants and landlords by the end of May, with more than 80 jurisdictions having yet to start.

Picking Up

Distribution picked up in June, with more money going out than all previous months combined. But state programs are still mired in bureaucracy, and the vast majority of the $46.5 billion total allocation remains unspent.

On Monday, Pelosi sent a letter to her colleagues thanking them for calling attention to the issue “as we await a decision from the administration.” The California Democrat also urged lawmakers, home for the August recess, to work within their districts to speed the distribution of rent assistance.

Also Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus urged the House and Senate to extend the eviction moratorium as a public health necessity, noting Covid-19 is still a threat because of the delta variant. But the group also called on Treasury “to work with Congress to ensure that funds already transferred to states and communities can be more effectively distributed to renters and landlords.”

Pelosi and her lieutenants wrote the Biden administration on Saturday asking that it take its own action to extend the moratorium through Oct. 18. However, in that same letter, Pelosi conceded that Kavanaugh has said he would not allow the administration to extend the moratorium without congressional approval, if the issue came before the Supreme Court.

Pinning Blame

On Friday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters sought to pin some of the blame for the slow distribution of this assistance by states and localities on the administration of former President Donald Trump.

“States and localities were not helped in these efforts by the Trump administration’s last-minute decision to issue rather confusing and harmful programmatic guidance which the Biden administration had to spend valuable time undoing,” Waters said. She said the governors “were not able to implement this program as quickly as we would like them to do, this is all brand new to them.”

Waters said she spoke with Yellen, whom she said is working with governors to streamline the money.

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