At the onset of the pandemic, a federal moratorium on evictions was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control. Last Saturday, the moratorium which had been extended several times throughout the pandemic had reached its end. President Biden explained that the moratorium would no longer be in effect after the Supreme Court's June decision that the CDC could no longer extend the ban on eviction unless Congress passed new legislation to protect tenants.

That legislation never came, and in a last-ditch effort last Friday, a bill extending the moratorium failed to pass. Many Democratic lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had persisted that the moratorium should extend through the rest of this year. Cortez was one of several lawmakers who camped outside of congress hours before the moratorium expired.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, shared that “It’s too little too late. The White House did not handle this well. I think they did not think about this eviction moratorium in a serious way.”

According to the Aspen Institute, an estimated 30 to 40 million people throughout America are at risk of losing their homes now that evictions against those who have not paid their rent are set to move forward starting this week.

Homeowners At Risk

It is not just renters who will be impacted by the pandemic’s havoc on the housing crisis. According to The Mortgage Bankers Association, an estimated 1.75 million homeowners, just under 4% of all homes, are in some sort of a forbearance plan with their mortgage lenders or banks. Because tenants were protected from eviction under the moratorium, many did not pay rent and passed on the deficit to their landlords. Because of this domino effect, many landlords who struggled to collect rate payments are in danger of losing their properties. As the pandemic continues, landlords throughout the nation are reporting losses ranging from the low $10,000 to upwards of $30,000.

The Aspen Institute highlights that mom-and-pop landlords own 22.7 million out of the 48.5 million rental units that make up the nation's housing market. These mom-and-pop landlords, who are at greater risk to begin with, are the first to face losing their homes. Some analysts speculate that once these homes are lost, big rental investment companies could scoop up these foreclosed homes, further stretching the access to affordable housing in the nation.

Who Will Be Hit Hardest as the Moratorium Lifts?

Minorities and people of color are set to be the hardest hit once evictions begin trickling through the court system. This is because people of color are twice as likely to be renters and disproportionately come from low-income and cost-burdened backgrounds. The Aspen Institute highlights that black and Latinx communities make up for roughly 80% of the population facing eviction and will feel the brunt of the looming eviction crisis.

Families with children are also in danger according to research from Milwaukee. There are over 14 million renter households with children, and these households typically are the first to face an eviction judgment.

Federal Rental Assistance Faces Distribution Hurdles

Under the Trump and Biden administrations, an Emergency Rental Assistance program was put into place to help tenants pay their rent and remain in their homes. Two programs were put into place with the ERA1 allocating $25 billion under the Consolidated Appropriations Act and ERA2 providing up to $21.55 billion under the American Rescue Plan.

Although a chunk of federal aid has been allocated for renters, only $3 billion of ERA1 have been distributed to renters. While the money is there, State and local leaders have shared that government red tape, long application processes, and a lack of access to information for renters have left many renters in the weeds when it comes to securing housing funds.

A lack of infrastructure for the funds has also left many state and local leaders struggling to get the money to those who need it before time runs out. Many states have found themselves building the programs to get the money distributed and distributing the money simultaneously.

In some localities, a reason for the lack of aid distribution is due to an influx of applications. A spokeswoman for Los Angeles shared with the Washington Post that they stopped taking applications after just seven weeks because of an “unprecedented demand that far exceeded the program funding.”

Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist of the housing company Redfin shared that “The places that I think we will be impacted the most will be where they enforced the moratorium well but didn’t get rental assistance out quickly.” Fairweather adds, “It seems like all the money is out there and exists but the issue is getting it to people who are at risk.”

According to the White House and Treasury Department, officials are continuing to press state and local governments to enhance their program distribution processes. By the same token, the federal government has allowed state and local entities to choose program designs that work best for their areas.

The slow distribution of funding for tenants is one of many confusing pieces of the looming eviction crisis created in part by the eviction moratorium. Annie Kat Alexander at the Princeton University Eviction Lab shared with the Washington Post that the eviction process will be another confusing series of events because of the backlogged funding. Alexander shares, “I’m anticipating that there will be mass confusion about who can be evicted, how they can be evicted, for what reasons and when.” Alexander adds, “There’s already a lot of confusion out there about exactly who is covered by the CDC moratorium and what the CDC moratorium protects from happening to you.”

As the lift on the eviction moratorium takes place, some states, including New York, have relaxed their documentation requirements and have made it so that the application process is more streamlined so that tenants do not have to jump through unnecessary hoops to get access to funding.

As lawmakers break for the summer, it’s unclear whether or not additional assistance that could provide renters with more time from being evicted will be offered.