CDC extends eviction moratorium as court challenges in Ohio, nationwide threaten

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday extended a moratorium on evicting tenants who cannot pay their rent because of the coronavirus pandemic as court challenges threaten the directive’s future.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky wrote that the moratorium will now expire June 30. A statement from the White House said that “the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health.

“Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings – like homeless shelters – by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19,” the release says.

The measure, which the CDC first implemented in September, under former President Donald Trump, is designed to prevent tenants from losing their homes if they lost income and fell behind on rent because of the coronavirus-fueled recession. Lawmakers and President Joe Biden’s administration extended the moratorium several times.

The directive – which applies to single people who earn up to $99,000 last year, or couples that make a combined $198,000 – requires tenants who can’t pay their rent to submit a declaration stating as much to their landlord. Renters can still face eviction for other violations. The declaration does not wipe away a tenants’ obligation to pay rent and associated late fees, but instead delays them until the moratorium ends.

In recent months, judges in different cities handled the CDC’s directive differently. In Cleveland, many evictions proceeded for nonpayment of rent.

Renters advocates and politicians from both parties have said the moratorium is an imperfect yet helpful tool. While rental assistance is available, some have worried that small landlords have little ability to kick out problematic tenants while losing a key source of income.

A recent Census Bureau survey said more than 500,000 Ohioans were behind on their rent or mortgage. The CDC enacted the moratorium to prevent what advocates feared: a large swath of evictions because of the recession. The moratorium and three stimulus bills Congress passed since March 2020 are credited with preventing a nationwide wave of evictions.

Two of those stimulus bills included a combined $46 billion for rental assistance. Many states and local governments used money from a previous stimulus bill for the same reasons.

Marcus Roth, a spokesman for the Coalition of Housing and Homelessness in Ohio, estimated that the state allocated nearly $1.5 billion for rental assistance since the pandemic began. The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have used millions of dollars for rental assistance programs run by CHN Housing Partners and EDEN, Inc.

Even though the moratorium expires in three months, exactly how long it will last is an open question due to court challenges in several states, including Ohio.

U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese in Cleveland ruled this month that the CDC lacked authority under existing federal law to implement such a measure nationwide. Calabrese, however, did not block the CDC from enforcing the moratorium while the case makes its way through the courts.

Federal judges in other states have issued similar rulings. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday also declined to immediately halt an order issued by a judge in Tennessee who ruled against the federal government. Like Calabrese, though, the appeals court did not block the CDC from enforcing the directive.

The appeals court said the federal government too broadly interpreted a phrase in a decades-old federal law to justify its authority to enact the moratorium. It also said the relationship between landlords and tenants is traditionally left to state governments.