Originally published by Bloomberg | January 20, 2021
The order calls for the moratorium, set to expire at the end of this month, to be extended through at least March 31.
President Joe Biden plans to extend bans on home evictions and foreclosures imposed last year to mitigate the dual economic and health crises spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of a package of executive orders Biden signed within hours of his inauguration, he asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to delay expiration of an order barring landlords from pushing out some tenants for nonpayment of rent. The order calls for the moratorium, set to expire at the end of this month, to be extended through at least March 31, 2021.
In addition, Biden plans to ask the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development to consider extending foreclosure restrictions and forbearance relief.
Biden’s economic team had previously signaled they would seek an extension of the CDC moratorium, adding that it would give tenants certainty that they won’t be cast out of their homes in the face of a public health emergency that has seen millions of Americans lose their jobs and fall deeper into debt. Officials have also warned that ejecting swaths of renters during the U.S. winter as COVID-19 rages would exacerbate the virus’s spread.
The U.S. economy, which was largely shut down as the pandemic peaked, has seen an uneven recovery that has largely spared white-collar workers while severely hitting people in lower-paying jobs. The poverty rate hit 11.7% in November, with 7.8 million Americans added to the ranks of the poor since midyear, according to a monthly Covid poverty tracker devised by three economists.
