The moratorium on evictions enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to relieve those hardest hit by the financial blow of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in effect while Joe's Administration Biden is appealing to court the decision of a federal magistrate to annul it.
District Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed on Friday to postpone the entry into force of her own May 5 decision, which determined that the moratorium should be lifted because the CDC lacks the legal authority to establish it.
The decision known this Friday will give relief, at least temporarily, to those tenants who are experiencing liquidity problems.
Friedrich, a judge appointed to the position by former President Donald Trump, said in justifying her decision that
the CDC's "interest in controlling the spread of the coronavirus and thus protecting public health" outweighed
other factors, such as the possible loss of income of homeowners who rent their homes but are not paid for it.
He assured that, while his decision "will undoubtedly result in continued financial losses for the owners," the magnitude of these losses is less than the need to protect the health of citizens.
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The CDC pushed through the eviction moratorium in September 2020 and it was then extended until June 2021. The agency's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said the evictions could be detrimental to public health measures that seek to mitigate infections of coronavirus, something that could happen if tenants are forced onto the streets and end up crammed into shelters.
Defenders of the right to housing hailed Judge Friedrich's decision.
"Without this stay, millions of families would be thrown into a spiral of irreparable and devastating damage, COVID-19 rates would skyrocket," said Emily Benfer, a law professor at Wake Forest University, in statements quoted by the news outlet. The Hill.
"That battle is still pending on the horizon but, for today, public health is better protected," he added.
Benfer recalled that tenants nationwide can avoid being evicted and activate their protections by providing CDC regulation to their homeowner.
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The decision to annul the moratorium has been appealed by the Government before the Court of Appeals for the Washington DC Circuit In any case, it expires in principle in June, so, unless the Administration decides to extend it, as it did previously, it could end naturally before justice has time to decide its end.
While federal and local eviction moratoriums have helped keep people in their homes during the pandemic, back rent payments have continued to pile up.
Renters in the United States owed an estimated total of $ 57 billion in back rent in January
, according to a report by financial institution Moody's Analytics.
Congress included $ 25 billion of aid in its December stimulus package and another $ 27 billion in the second plan approved in March to pay off these debts.
With information from The Hill
