Over 10 Million Americans At Risk Of Being Homeless As Eviction Moratorium Sets To Expire

More than 10 million Americans will be unable to pay their rent when the national moratorium on evictions expires in less than a month.

According to a report compiled by the Census Bureau between May 12 and 24th and approved by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has also discovered that 26% of Americans are unable to meet their usual expenses, with about 9% unable to afford daily meals.

With so many Americans unable to afford rent, the number of homeless people stands to rise when the CDC's eviction moratorium which has been in place for ten months, expires on the 30th of June. 

Despite not getting to all Americans, the policy has reduced the regular number of eviction filings by half, over the same period. The moratorium, which essentially stops evictions over non-payment of rent, has faced several challenges and complaints from landlords who claimed they couldn't afford to house people for free.

The CDC order bars any landlord from evicting “any covered person from any residential property in any jurisdiction to which this order applies during the effective period of the order.”

A "covered person" in the context used for the moratorium is anyone who earns or is to earn below $99,000 (or $198,000 for double income homes) this year, is unable to pay rent due to loss of income, has no alternate housing option, and has tried, unsuccessfully, to secure government assistance on rent or housing.

The moratorium was put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19. People were required to stay in one place to stop the spread of the deadly virus, the more people got evicted and were forced to move around in search of housing, the faster the virus would have spread.

Housing advocates have said the ban is being lifted at a bad time for both property owners and tenants alike. States are rushing to distribute the $45 billion in rental assistance assigned by Congress to address the crisis to the population.

According to Mark Melton, a lawyer who has represented tenants in Dallas pro bono, "We need to let this moratorium stay in place until we spend all this money. If you bail out the renter, that means you bailed out the landlord."