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Today, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled against a challenge from a group of Alabama landlords to place a hold on a 60-day federal eviction moratorium, though the group is expected to appeal. The moratorium was set to expire on July 31, but President Biden’s administration released an order through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend the moratorium for another 60 days, given the continued spread of COVID-19 throughout the country.
The extension came after strong pressure from progressives and housing advocates, including Rep. Cori Bush, who slept outside of the U.S. Capitol to draw awareness to the situation. The moratorium in place specifically protects tenants who cannot make rent or housing payments living in areas with "substantial and high levels" of COVID-19 transmission, which covers 90 percent of where the country’s population lives.
In St. Louis, the pandemic has given way to an increasing number of people facing eviction and experiencing homelessness. “We're seeing more individuals over the past year who are newly homeless," says Kathy Connors, executive director of Gateway 180, Missouri’s largest residential emergency shelter. "This experience—this horrible, traumatic experience—is new to them.”
Connors notes that Gateway 180 typically hears from families and individuals after they begin experiencing homelessness, but the organization has been fielding several calls “daily from individuals and families who knew the date in which they were going to become homeless” during the pandemic.
Yet the eviction moratorium cannot completely shield people from eviction, notes Thomas Pearson, a staff attorney with the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing & Opportunity Council, who represents tenants in eviction cases. He notes that landlords are still able to evict tenants based on lease violations or unrenewed contracts. “The limited protection of the order itself is an issue, and this whole rental-assistance process has been extremely confusing,” he explains. Pearson describes the moratorium as “a massive necessary tool that the government's using because there still is so much rental assistance money out there that hasn't been used.” He believes these evictions could be prevented if enough time were allowed for federal rental-assistance funds to be distributed as needed.
One St. Louis woman facing eviction feels the anxiety of the delayed rental-assistance process. In June, she had a stroke that left her unable to work. Before that time, she had never struggled to pay rent on time, she says. In July, however, her landlord filed to evict her, even after she let her landlord know about her condition and that a rental-assistance program is available, she says. In the meantime, when she calls the government program to check on her status, she only reaches voicemail, she adds. Not knowing whether the rental-assistance funds will arrive before the eviction moratorium expires leaves her in a precarious position. The stress keeps her up at night, and she’s largely lost her appetite. “I don’t know what to do because I have children and grandkids and a little dog,” she says. “I need peace of mind that I can get help.”
Connors notes the way in which the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development prioritizes resources needed for rehousing efforts. “Right now, HUD prioritizes chronicity. If we've got new families who are being evicted, it takes them a year of homelessness to see that chronic status,” she explains. Changes need to be implemented, she says, “from the standpoint of HUD and carried down to local governments to be able to work with those new priorities that will do more to support newly homeless households.”
Another focus of Gateway 180 is ensuring that people are able to access an income, whether earned, through disability, or through retirement, so “they are empowered with the money and the finances that are needed to support their household” once they are rehoused, says Connors.
Connors adds that the organization has been working with St. Patrick Center and a landlord advisory committee to hold "landlord appreciation and introduction events" to make sure "landlords have a direct line to the social-service agencies that are working with families and households." These events hold space for landlords to "talk about what the eviction moratorium really looks like for them, and, as you can imagine, there's a lot of stress there," Connors explains.
Though the extension of the eviction moratorium has provided more time for tenants facing eviction, they may still be in a precarious position come October 3, says Pearson: “Unless this money gets spent the right way, and quickly, before this moratorium ends, we could see a historic wave of evictions. It's been easy to ignore that because it hasn't been happening and because a lot of people just don't see it.”
“I really despise the notion that the moratorium is a free pass for people who don't want to pay," Pearson adds. "I don't think anyone wants to be in that situation.”
