The Biden Administration announced a new federal eviction moratorium. This moratorium will last until October 3, 2021. This moratorium will protect many tenants from eviction until its expiration. However, the new moratorium does not protect everyone, and concerns continue to mount about the high risk of potential homelessness once the moratorium finally expires.
What is the Federal Eviction Moratorium?
The federal eviction moratorium is a legal measure that protects people from being evicted, provided the reason they are being evicted is due to being unable to pay their rent due to COVID-19. While this does not excuse their rent obligations entirely, it does prevent them from being forced out of their homes due to economic hardship. For many people who have suffered economically over the past year and a half, the federal eviction moratorium may be the only thing keeping them from becoming homeless.
Why Was the Moratorium Put Into Place?
The first federal eviction moratorium first came into effect in March 2020, after it became clear that the coronavirus pandemic would require severe quarantine measures to contain the virus. These quarantine measures required many businesses to close down or limit their operations, resulting in widespread layoffs and furloughs. The moratorium was meant to keep people from becoming homeless due to the loss of their income, which would put them at increased risk of coronavirus infection.
Why Has the Moratorium Been Extended?
The new eviction moratorium has been put into place after the previous one expired at the beginning of August. The moratorium was extended due to two primary factors. The first is that the coronavirus remains a serious public health threat, despite widespread vaccination efforts. The second is that many people still have not recovered economically from the impact of COVID-19 and without the moratorium, tens or hundreds of thousands of renters would be evicted within a few months.
How Do People Feel About the Moratorium?
The federal eviction moratorium has detractors across the board but for different reasons. Tenant advocates have called for more substantive financial relief for tenants struggling to pay their rent since the beginning of the pandemic. Those advocates tend to consider the moratorium to be a stopgap measure that fails to address the real economic hardship caused by COVID-19.
On the other hand, landlords are displeased with the moratorium since it was first put into place back in March 2020. In many cases, landlords have had to deal with tenants not paying their rent for nearly 18 months and they have been unable to legally evict them due to the moratorium. At the same time, many Landlords have not been able to pay their own mortgages due to the non-paying tenants. Landlords desperately want to remove non-paying tenants but they cannot until the moratorium is over. And when it does end, large numbers of tenants could face homelessness very quickly.
If you are in a dispute with your landlord and want to know more about protecting yourself, do not wait until it is too late. You should seek advice from an attorney experienced in handling landlord-tenant disputes, who can advise you on your rights and help you avoid the risk of eviction. Contact the skilled landlord-tenant attorneys at Hobson-Williams, P.C. Contact us online, toll-free (866) 825-1529 or (718) 210-4744 to discuss your rights and the solutions available to you.
Written by Tanya Hobson-Williams
Appointed to the bench by the Board of Trustees in 2008, and elected in 2009, Tanya Hobson-Williams was the first African-American Female Justice in the Incorporated Village of Hempstead. Tanya Hobson–Williams obtained her B.A. in Government and Politics from St. John’s University and her law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Tanya Hobson-Williams has an active elder law practice assisting senior citizens in obtaining Medicaid for Home Care and Nursing Home Care. She routinely lectures at senior citizen centers, assisted living facilities, law schools and counsels families on a variety of topics of concerns to families caring for the elderly.
