Judge Dabney Friedrich of the federal Court of the District of Columbia rejected this Friday the petition presented by homeowners to overturn the moratorium approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English) to prevent the evictions of tenants who They were unable to pay the rent for their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two groups representing rental homeowners asked the court last week to block the moratorium, claiming it was illegal because it contradicted the Supreme Court's mandate.
The CDC issued the moratorium on Tuesday, with an expected end date of October 3, as "an effective public health measure," as necessary as vaccines and masks to combat the pandemic, claiming that "mass evictions would have consequences difficult to reverse ”in the battle against the delta variant of the coronavirus, and could lead to new spikes in transmission.
At the start of the pandemic, Congress imposed a temporary ban on evictions, which expired in July 2020. With Donald Trump in the White House, the CDC then issued an order to ban evictions until March, which Biden then extended.
Judge Dabney Friedrich, however, overturned this moratorium in May, precisely at the request of those same groups of owners.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which finally decided to keep it in force until the date it was to conclude, July 31.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who voted with the majority, wrote a concurring opinion arguing that congressional action would be required to extend it further.
The moratorium thus expired on July 31, but pressure from Democratic congressmen led the government to approve a new extension, despite previously indicating that it would not do so precisely because of the Supreme Court decision. To circumvent this impediment, the CDC did not extend the moratorium as it had been in force until then, but instead issued a new one, as they explained, that would only be applied in areas with the highest rate of infections and not throughout the country, such as the previous.
That was precisely the argument of the Department of Justice this Friday when it had to defend the measure before the judge.
In addition, he recalled that, since the Supreme Court ruling, "the trajectory of the pandemic has changed dramatically as a result of the highly contagious delta variant."
"Faced with this growing number of cases, and instead of extending the previous national moratorium," he added, "the CDC issued a new moratorium that applies only to areas of high or substantial transmission, thus exercising its authority to define the necessary actions. to reduce the transmission of the disease between states ”.
A moratorium to curb the pandemic
In order for a person to apply for the moratorium, they had to show that they tried to pay their rent, that they did not pay for “loss of income, hours of work, layoffs or extraordinary medical expenses” and that they tried to pay their debt.
In addition, you were required to indicate that you lived in a city experiencing "high or substantial rates of COVID-19 transmission."
"The eviction moratorium facilitates the isolation and self-quarantine of people who become ill or who are at risk of transmitting COVID-19 by keeping them out of congregational settings and in their own homes," defended the CDC.
A study in the Journal of Epidemiology confirmed: "Evictions may have accelerated the transmission of COVID-19 by diminishing people's ability to socially distance themselves," said Frederick Zimmerman, professor of health policy and management at the School of Public Health. Fielding from UCLA.
"The study included 44 states in the United States that applied moratoriums on eviction, followed from March 13 to September 3, 2020," the text deepens.
What can I do now?
If you have already received an eviction notice or your landlord has communicated their intention to evict you, “depending on state and local law, you may have the right to address any issue cited in the notice and avoid an eviction case.
This is called the right to cure, ”explains the Evictions Laboratory at Princeton University.
The landlord could then present the case in court and have it summoned to a hearing where, as a tenant, you can defend yourself.
“If the judge decides in favor of the landlord, the judge can issue a possession order.
Tenants can appeal the decision, leave the property or wait until the bailiff or other party executes the court order, ”the website states.
If your eviction had been stopped by the moratorium, it could restart.
In that case you should "apply for rental assistance from your city, county or state program."
While some renters worry about how this could affect their credit record and their chances of purchasing a home in the future, there are those who fear being detained in court for not having legal status.
Faced with this concern, the Eviction Laboratory assures that "according to the new rules issued during the Biden administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers cannot detain people in court" and that they request help Free legal status and applying for rental assistance programs are also an option for people who do not have legal status in the United States.
However, analysis of the data shows that evictions hurt Latinos and Blacks the most. Experts fear that the end of the moratorium could aggravate the situation of vulnerability that these groups faced before the pandemic, added to the fact that states such as Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Texas, where there are fewer options, is where the cases of COVID-19 are multiplying and where the lowest vaccination rates are registered.