National eviction ban expires in 9 days but CDC may move to extend it

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be moving to extend the national eviction moratorium that has been in effect since September and is now scheduled to expire at the end of March.

The CDC has sent a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget for regulatory review, which experts say indicates that the health agency is taking steps to keep the protection in place as coronavirus cases surge in many states and millions of Americans remain behind on their rent.

“It’s not a guarantee, but the submission to OMB means that it is likely that the administration will extend the CDC order on evictions,” said Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project.

More from Personal Finance:
Four months behind on rent, he got help from his landlord
More than 2,000 organizations urge Biden to extend eviction ban
What to know about applying for some of the $45 billion in rental aid

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, agreed, saying it was “very likely” the ban will be extended before it lapses in nine days.

CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said a decision to extend the moratorium has not been made. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Landlord groups have opposed the eviction ban, saying the pandemic has gone on for more than a year now and that they cannot continue housing tenants for free and allowing them to rack up arrears.

“Short-term policies like eviction moratoria leave renters accruing insurmountable debt and jeopardize the ability for rental housing providers to provide safe, affordable housing,” said Bob Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association.

Housing advocates point out that Congress has now allocated more than $45 billion in rental assistance to address those arrears, and say it would be a waste of that money to allow evictions to proceed before it reaches renters and their landlords.

“President Biden must extend the moratorium until the emergency rental assistance funds are expended,” Yentel said.

Recent research has found that evictions have led to as many as 400,000 additional coronavirus cases during the pandemic because many displaced people double up with family members or friends or are forced to turn to crowded shelters.

“Increased evictions lead to increased spread of, and potentially deaths from, Covid-19,” Yentel said.

As of January, nearly 20% of renters in the U.S. were behind on their housing payments.

Although the CDC has barred most evictions amid the public health crisis, many landlords are pushing out their tenants anyway.

Since the CDC ban took effect, Jim Baker, executive director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, has counted close to 50,000 new eviction cases filed by corporate landlords in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas alone.

During the same period, The Eviction Lab at Princeton…