The following report is from the Wall Street Journal:
A national ban on most residential evictions expired after Saturday, setting the stage for a potentially widespread displacement of low-income renters that looks poised to hit Southern states particularly hard.
Meanwhile, only about $3 billion out of $46.6 billion in federal rental assistance meant to prevent tenant evictions and help struggling landlords had reached landlords and tenants by the end of June, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which noted that the pace at which local programs were disbursing the funds has been increasing.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted the eviction ban in September to prevent evictions of millions of tenants who were unable to pay rent because of financial hardship during the pandemic. The CDC has extended the moratorium three times. The White House said on Wednesday that only the U.S. Congress could extend it again, citing a Supreme Court ruling that limited the CDC’s power to renew it. But lawmakers failed to reach an agreement to renew the ban.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter this weekend that the Senate could take action on this issue and that the House was on call while out of town for several weeks. But Republicans are unlikely to vote to extend the moratorium further, making action in the Senate unlikely.
Mrs. Pelosi (D., Calif.) reiterated on Twitter on Sunday her view that “the CDC has the power to extend the eviction moratorium.” A senior White House official said last week that an administrative—rather than legislative—extension of the moratorium would quickly be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Renters in Southern states are among the most vulnerable to the ban’s expiration, U.S. Census survey data indicate. Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia tenants are more likely to carry rent debt than the U.S. average, surveys show. Nationally, about 16% of adult renters live in households that are behind on rent payments. That is more than twice the rate that the Census showed in 2017, the last time it surveyed nonpayment of rent before the pandemic.
Eviction laws and procedures in some Southern states are also among the most landlord-friendly in the country, which means many tenants could be evicted quickly once the ban lifts.
In Mississippi, tenants can lose their eviction case in court and be removed from their home on the same day. In Arkansas, landlords can pursue criminal charges for tenants who don’t pay rent. And in western Tennessee, where a federal judge ruled that the CDC ban was unconstitutional, tenants are already getting evicted for nonpayment.
A number of other states, including New York and California, have local eviction moratoriums that will prevent evictions even after the federal ban expires. The prospect of a rise in evictions across the South would come at the same time apartment rental prices are rising, making the ability for the displaced to find affordable homes even more difficult.
Rent increases in cities like Charlotte, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla., and Memphis, Tenn., have outpaced the rest of the country. In Atlanta, rents rose 12.7% during the past year, according to listings website Apartment List, exceeding the national average of 10.3%. Rents in some Atlanta suburbs have risen more than 20% during that period.
Maxine Vernon, an aircraft mechanic who was unemployed for most of the pandemic, faces eviction from her two-bedroom unit in Stonecrest, Ga., near Atlanta, after several months of missed payments.
When the landlord filed to evict her, the national ban kept her and her two teenage children in their home. But her landlord is already anticipating the ban’s end. When Ms. Vernon began searching online for a new apartment, one listing caught her eye. Her landlord had already listed her current place, assuming her eventual eviction. The asking rent was $1,700 a month, a $500 increase over Ms. Vernon’s rent.
Ms. Vernon said the $14,000 she owes in back rent and late fees is on her credit report. She has spent more than $1,000 on application fees for new apartments, she said, but has been rejected from five of them because of the eviction and the rent debt on her record. If the local marshal comes to put her out, she said she and her children have nowhere to go.
This is my first eviction. I don’t even know where the local shelter is.
Ms. Vernon, 49 years old.
Large landlord trade groups have pushed for an end to the national eviction moratorium, pointing to their own mounting costs and debt obligations. The National Apartment Association last week sued the federal government for $26 billion in monetary damages due to the ban.
In Washington, there was little sign of imminent action to extend the eviction moratorium. Mrs. Pelosi said on Friday that House Democrats didn’t have enough time to reach an agreement on the duration of another extension after the White House asked lawmakers on Thursday to step in.
On CNN, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) said Sunday that the House should reconvene to extend the moratorium; she also cast blame on the White House for not requesting Congress act earlier. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thousands of smaller landlords across the U.S. have been struggling, too, and some have tried to work with their tenants. “I have a boiler bill. I still owe on my oil and it’s accruing interest,” said Lincoln Eccles, a Brooklyn, N.Y., building owner who is waiting for his tenants to get approved for rental aid.
Rental-assistance programs in most cities and states, including in the South, have been slow to distribute the $46.6 billion in federal aid. DeKalb County, Ga., part of greater Atlanta, has distributed less than 10% of its available aid.
Like most programs distributing federal aid, DeKalb doesn’t allow tenants to receive the money directly, relying on landlords to voluntarily participate. It also only pays up to 60% of a tenant’s missed rent. Ms. Vernon, who lives in DeKalb County, said that even if she receives the assistance, she doesn’t have the cash on hand to pay off the other 40%.
Still, the U.S. Treasury Department said recently that many programs in the South and elsewhere are beginning to disburse funds faster. Mississippi has distributed about 6% of its available rent funding, though it has tripled its distribution rate in the past three weeks, according to the Mississippi Home Corporation, which administers the state’s funds. The state recently started hosting in-person events where staff can help eligible renters complete applications.
Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Home Corporation, said ending the eviction moratorium will impede his state’s efforts to help renters. “The assistance is available,” he said. “We need time.”
Mississippi tenants will have little recourse once the ban expires, said John Jopling, managing attorney of the Mississippi Center for Justice, a nonprofit law firm. Legal-aid attorneys are working to connect as many tenants with rental aid as they can, but there aren’t enough lawyers to help everyone.
There’s one legal-services attorney for every 20,000 eligible clients.
Mr. Jopling said
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[26] Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. [27] If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?Proverbs 22:26-27
This eviction ban could get extended again, but I honestly don’t think so, at least not before hundreds of thousands, yea, millions, pour out into the streets and food banks.
Many of these people facing eviction and homelessness now, obviously not all of them, spent all their “free” government stimmies and benefits on TV’s, smartphones, booze, leased new vehicles, and daytrading Bitcoin, rather than payoff debts and deficits. So now these people are even in greater debt AND will lose their living place.
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
Proverbs 13:11
As pointed out by non-mainstream economic analyst and commentator, Jeremiah Babe commenting on the same news also said this whole thing seems to be “deliberate,” citing the World Economic Forum’s tagline for the future, “You’ll own nothing and be happy” – something The WinePress has reported upon many times. I totally agree with him.
Agenda 2030: You’ll Own Nothing And Be Happy
The Great Reset Explained In The Words Of The World Economic Forum
And now, like Babe and The WinePress have been pointing out, now the big banks and private institutions like BlackRock will come in and buy up entire swaths of these neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
Why Is The Housing Market On Fire? What The Media Never Wants To Talk About
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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So what happened to the other 43 billion dollars of the 46 billion earmarked for these tenants and landlords? Sounds like a Clinton Foundation “Charity”.
And globalist corporate mortgage holding companies pick it all up for a song….and the ‘transformation’ moves forward. Such evil. Tempt, then blame. Create the crisis, & who benefits? Then step in like the heroes in the white hats, the Dagon fish-hat. They set up both renters AND private & smaller corporation landlords, after all these years of encouraging folks to invest in real estate, buying and flipping, etc.
Those same entities are also buying up factories, peoples’ livelihoods….even of those who did the right thing & worked through all of this rather than riding the apparent gravy train. It’s a divide & conquer dream for the wicked. So evil. Our leaders betrayed & sold us all out….Trump included.