Landlord groups ask federal judge to halt new CDC eviction ban

[JohnSJ]

Source: NBC News

The filing argues that the new CDC order is an extension of the previous moratorium, which the Supreme Court has ruled the agency didn't have the authority to issue.

"Two groups representing property owners asked a federal judge Wednesday evening to block enforcement of the latest eviction moratorium from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Alabama Association of Realtors and its Georgia counterpart argued in the emergency court filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the latest moratorium issued by the CDC is "unlawful." The order is essentially an extension of the previous moratorium, which "has prevented landlords from evicting tenants who aren't paying their rent during the pandemic," the filing said.

The groups, which challenged the first moratorium in court, also argued that the CDC "caved to the political pressure" after Democrats pressed the White House to extend the moratorium over the weekend. The groups said the agency issued the new order "for nakedly political reasons -- to ease the political pressure, shift the blame to the courts for ending the moratorium, and use litigation delays to achieve a policy objective."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/landlord-groups-ask-federal-judge-halt-new-cdc-eviction-ban-n1275998

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https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215702276

"August 2, 2021
Los Angeles – Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the letter, Congresswoman Waters expresses her strong support for Speaker Pelosi and reiterates her call for President Biden to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to extend the eviction moratorium.

“Due to Justice Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion, the Biden administration now states that they do not believe they have the legal authority to extend the CDC eviction moratorium,” wrote Congresswoman Waters. “I would like to point out that the Supreme Court did not rule one way or the other on the legality of the CDC eviction moratorium. In fact, the Court merely declined to take up the emergency appeal from the Alabama Association of Realtors.

To this day, there has not been a ruling on this particular emergency by the Supreme Court that has explicitly and assuredly indicated that the President of the United States cannot extend the CDC eviction moratorium through executive action. In fact, the President has directed the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium in the past and can and should do so once again.”

“In light of the Biden administration's refusal to extend the eviction moratorium and last-minute punt to Congress, our colleagues in the House of Representatives have displayed a tremendous amount of courage and commitment by highlighting the urgent need to extend the moratorium,” added Congresswoman Waters. “Speaker Pelosi, as our nation continues into another day of this eviction emergency, I stand with you as you use all of your power and influence to insist that the CDC move forward and extend the eviction moratorium – something that it has already done in the past.”

https://waters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/letter-speaker-pelosi-rep-waters-continues-fight-renters

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Yes, may evicting Kavanaugh be a primary focus in the years ahead

[JohnSJ]

2. No doubt. The legislation introduced by Maxine Waters better get accelerated, because I suspect

this is going to get pushed to the courts rather quickly

I am glad we have a plan B in place

[CrispyQ]

3. Why don't we tell the banksters, whose asses we bailed out back in '08,

that for the duration of the pandemic, no mortgages will be defaulted on, & any missed payments will be tacked on to the end of the loan. Why should the landlords suffer, too? What am I missing?

[MichMan]

4. Not all landlords carry mortgages?

[JohnSJ]

5. As I understand it, the money was allocated to both renters and landlords. A big part of the

problem as I understand it is States are failing to distribute it. This squeezes landlords and puts millions of renters to extreme financial hardship, even homelessness.

Not all states are doing this as I understand.

Someone correct me if I am wrong

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

9. Yep...

... the states were given federal funds for this and the states are not releasing them... yet. From what I understand, California has been or is about to start assisting on these. Any other states doing anything for renters and those with mortgages?

[Marthe48]

6. Why not collect a % of rent due until

the economy stops reeling like a slap-happy drunk?

We visualize landlords being rich, as we thought traitor was, and renters and mortgage holders as strapped, but the reality is far different than the stereotype.

Maybe if we approached the payments with a little give and take, we could get through this upheaval a little easier. If I was paying rent or a mortgage, I wouldn't want to see the arrears piling up into an insurrmountable debt. If I were a landlaord, I would be scrambling because income I relied on to make payments on upkeep, taxes and so on, is not available.

We were on unemployment several times, and we made sure we kept the payments up on the house. That was during the oil crisis of '74-'76. My husband was unemployed for 26 months. But so was everyone we knew. I can't tell you how much we relied on each other-family and friends, if we came up short. We shared meals, groceries, loaned a bit of money now and then, or borrowed a few dollars here and there. We used our unemployment to pay bills and eat. Rent, food and utilities were far cheaper back then. In these times, whoever is unemployed should be sure to keep up on expenses to the best of their ability. No matter which side of the equation we are on, we should try to be helping each get through this.

And by all means, the states need to release the funding that is available. NOW.

[malthaussen]

7. I've been talking to my landlord about this...

... he's said that evictions have always still been possible for cause, just not if the tenant can show that the reason he cannot pay is due to the impact of covid (lost jobs or work hours, eg, not just contracting the disease). So two possibilities occur to me:

1) Landlords are exaggerating the impact of Covid and the moratorium, or
2) A whole lot more people have been affected by Covid and it's influences than we know.

My own landlord has always had a problem with deadbeats to start with, so the moratorium has not caused him much more grief than he usually experiences. I wonder how much that is true of other landlords, and how much mine is an outlier.

-- Mal

[cinematicdiversions]

10. Unfortunately this gives deadbeats and scammers an unassailable tool.

While hardly the majority of renters by any means this does cause serious hardships. There a people who bought houses in 2020 who are still homeless because the previous tenants or owners refuse to leave.

[Corgigal]

8. We just had two landlords murdered,

in the front yard of a condo, because they were trying to evict a woman who lived there. Her boyfriend murdered both of them. It’s going to get crazy out there.

https://www.wkyt.com/2021/08/04/community-remembers-couple-killed-richmond-shooting/

[Calista241]

11. I think there's going to be an injunction here.

Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion "clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium."

And the fact that Biden fucking said on TV that it probably violates the SCOTUS opinion, but that it would take 60ish days for anyone to fight it, and during which time they could do what they want, is just asking for a judge to tell you to fuck off and slap an injunction on the case. Especially the Trump judge they've appealed to.

[Beastly Boy]

12. Nobody seems to care (or be aware of) the long term damage the moratorium is creating.

This is already happening: rents are rising rapidly all over the US. This was totally predictable: it is self-evident that landlords would never go into rental business if they were not seeking income to cover expenses (mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance expenses, etc), some times at a net profit and other times at a net loss. With the moratorium in place, net loss is virtually guaranteed, and the business of renting apartments is becoming a high risk, low reward (or no reward) enterprise, with dubious prospects at best to recover the losses.. The rents are realigning upwards to justify this new risk/reward ratio (after all, renting an apartment is a business). Those landlords who are best suited to survive in this environment are the deep-pocketed giant corporate slumlords. They are beginning to actively replace the small landlords and raise rents.

Now, imagine the moratorium ending eventually, and a whole new housing market emerging. The rents are way up, affordable housing effectively gone, and all the people looking for new apartments have no one to turn to but the corporate slumlords. If you think things are tough on the tenants now, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Why didn't anyone think of this BEFORE the moratorium went into effect?

[marie999]

13. From the beginning people should have had to prove that because of Covid-19

they could not pay their rent or mortgage and if the government agreed, then the government should have paid their rent or mortgage when due. We are lucky in that no one in our family has had Covid-19 or been out of a job because of it.