By David Shepardson and Michelle Conlin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 residential eviction moratorium set to expire June 30 is expected to be extended by another month, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
An announcement could come as early as Wednesday, the sources said.
The national ban on residential evictions was first implemented last September and was extended in March until June 30.
The White House and CDC did not comment.
On Tuesday, a group of 44 U.S. lawmakers urged the extension, citing an estimate from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that about “6 million renter households are behind on their rent and at risk of eviction.”
The letter to the CDC and Biden signed by Democrats lawmakers Ayanna Pressley, Jimmy Gomez, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn B. Maloney and others, warned that without an extension “millions of renters will once again face the threat of eviction.”
The Supreme Court has yet to act on the petition by the landlord groups that argued the CDC exceeded its authority when it halted evictions to help renters during the pandemic. The CDC imposed the ban to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prevent homelessness during the pandemic.
The landlords said property owners “have been losing over $13 billion every month under the moratorium.” One group estimated that 40 million Americans were behind on rent in January, with $70 billion of missed payments by the end of 2020.
The moratorium covers renters who expected to earn less than $99,000 a year, or $198,000 for joint filers, or who reported no income, or received stimulus checks.
Renters also had to swear they were doing their best to make partial rent payments, and that evictions would likely leave them homeless or force them into “shared” living quarters.
Congress has approved $47 billion in relief for renters but much of that money has not yet been distributed.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Michelle Conlin; Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)