Property owners can now take steps to evict delinquent renters , according to a U . S . Supreme Court decision that blocked President Joe Biden ’ s recent moratorium on evictions .
Over objections from three sitting Justices , the Supreme Court ruled on August 26th that the Centers for Diseases Control ( CDC ) did not have the authorization to enact a moratorium on evictions , according to USA Today .
The court ’ s majority wrote the following in an eightpage , unsigned opinion :
" It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken . But that has not happened . Instead , the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decadesold statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination . It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts ." The majority further added : " Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation , yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium ' s expiration ."
Eviction Moratorium
By Stephanie Mojica
Image by Jens Neumann from Pixabay
" It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken . But that has not happened . Instead , the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decadesold statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination . It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts ."
The CDC ’ s original moratorium had lasted from September 2020 to the end of July 2021 and was designed to quell the spread of COVID19 , according to CNN Business .
On August 3rd , 2021 , the CDC issued a new moratorium on evictions that protected about 90 % of the country ’ s renters and drew the ire of many landlords and real estate companies . The new moratorium applied to areas of the country where COVID19 infection rates are once again spiking due to the Delta variant .
Critics of the eviction moratoriums state that these allow unscrupulous renters to spend money on other things while shafting their rent obligations and causing undue financial distress to landlords . Supporters of the moratoriums claim that dissenting landlords are acting on greed and do not care that innocent people will be left homeless .
According to a recent U . S . Census Bureau survey , more than 3 million renters will become homeless in the next two months if alternative solutions are not offered .
Fortunately , there is $ 46 billion of federal rental relief aid funding available , according to CNN Business . Only about $ 5 billion had been distributed through the Treasury Department as of July .
Another blow to renters with financial struggles is that three unemployment programs — Pandemic Unemployment Assistance ( PUA ), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation ( FPUC ), and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation ( PEUC ) — end on September 4th , according to 13 WREX .
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