The CDC’s national eviction moratorium remains in effect, after the U.S. Department of Justice appealed a federal judge’s ruling calling it illegal.
Late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of Washington, D.C., agreed to put her ruling on hold until at least May 12. Friedrich emphasized the delay was granted to give landlord groups and the federal government time to file legal papers for the appeal process, not based on the merits of the Justice Department’s argument.
In her 20-page ruling, Friedrich said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority when it issued the eviction moratorium last September and that it “must be set aside.”
The ruling comes after several landlord groups, including the National Apartment Association, National Association of Residential Property Managers and National Association of Realtors, filed suit, arguing that banning evictions during the pandemic forced landlords to provide “unlimited free housing.”
In total, six lawsuits challenging the moratorium’s legitimacy have gone before judges, with three ruling in support and three calling it illegal. However, Friedrich’s decision has the potential to overturn the moratorium because she cited the Administrative Procedure Act, which allows the ruling to be applied nationwide.
President Trump directed the CDC to consider a temporary moratorium on residential evictions, which the CDC said was necessary to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. The agency drew upon powers it has rarely used before under the 1944 Public Health Service Act, which gives the agency broad authority to step in when state and local governments haven’t taken sufficient steps to prevent a disease from spreading.
New research estimates that eviction moratoriums, at the state and federal level, led to at least 1.5 million fewer eviction cases from being filed in 2020 than in a normal year.
“Scientific evidence shows that evictions exacerbate the spread of COVID-19, which has already killed more than half a million Americans, and the harm to the public that would result from unchecked evictions cannot be undone,” Brian M. Boynton, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.
The moratorium applies to all renters who make less than $99,000 a year, or who make too little to file tax returns or received a government stimulus check.
What renters need to know
Housing attorneys advised tenants whose landlords file eviction cases to immediately file the paperwork that invokes the CDC moratorium.
Tenants must sign and submit a special document to the court attesting that they can’t afford to pay rent because of a loss of income or medical expenses. They must also attest they have tried to get government assistance and attempted to pay a portion of the rent, and that if they were evicted, they would either become homeless or have to move in with friends or family.
Most clerks’ offices also have a self-help center where residents can get basic advice for responding to an eviction lawsuit.
