Defaulting renter with facemask receives letter giving notice of eviction from home on wooden table (istock photo)
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WASHINGTON DC – On July 31, the federal moratorium on evictions, established during the coronavirus pandemic, is set to expire. The Biden administration extended the moratorium by a month last month.

Through July 31, 2021, the CDC moratorium will prevent residential evictions for non-payment for qualified tenants who submit a written declaration to their landlord.

The Biden administration is not expected to extend the moratorium.

However, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there will be an eviction moratorium through April 1, 2022, for individuals unable to pay rent due to COVID-19-related financial hardship.

The June 16 , 2021, law requires landlords to provide a form to tenants they wish to evict for non-payment of rent explaining the notice is not the same as an eviction and that tenants don’t immediately have to leave the unit.

The law also requires that the form landlords must give to tenants when they notify them to leave because of nonpayment of rent must also include information on rental assistance programs, trial court rules and relevant federal or state legal restrictions on residential evictions.

On Friday, July 23, a U.S. appeals court ruled in Cincinnati ruled the U,S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not have the authority to establish a national eviction moratorium. The Appeals court ruling only impacts Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

The CDC’s eviction moratorium has been extended three times, including once by Congress.

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In June 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote allowed the moratorium to continue.

Landlords have argued the eviction moratorium is unfair, even with Congress approving $46.5 billion in assistance for landlords.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said this spring 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Massachusetts Trial Court reported 10,357 eviction filings between December 2020 and March 2021 alone, including 2,072 eviction filings in March.

“The CDC eviction moratorium is a necessary public health measure to lessen spread of/deaths from COVID-19,” Diane Yentel, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, recently tweeted. “The need clearly remains as Delta surges & 6m renter households remain behind on rent & at risk of eviction when moratorium expires.”

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Jain Family Institute Fellow Paul Williams said 80% of all households struggling with rental debt were in counties experiencing a surge of virus cases because of the Delta variant. “Letting county courts kick people onto the street next week is probably the worst Delta variant strategy I can think of, Williams Tweeted.

As of June 7, roughly 3.2 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Around 11.4 million renters, about 16% in the nation, have fallen behind on rent payments, according to an analysis of Census data from The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

By editor

Susan Petroni is the former editor for SOURCE. She is the founder of the former news site, which as of May 1, 2023, is now a self-publishing community bulletin board. The website no longer has a journalist but a webmaster.