Coronavirus pandemic prompts CDC to extend federal eviction moratorium

Local advocates say the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s extension of the federal moratorium on evictions amid the coronavirus pandemic is a good step — but more needs to be done.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday extended the moratorium from Jan. 31 to March 31, saying that evictions of tenants for failure to make rent or housing payments could be detrimental to public health measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to our nation’s health. Despite extensive mitigation efforts, COVID-19 continues to spread in America at a concerning pace,” the CDC said in a statement. “The pandemic has also exacerbated underlying issues of housing insecurity for many Americans. Keeping people in their homes and out of congregate settings — like shelters — is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

“Anything that keeps people out of congregate shelters during this pandemic is a good thing,” said Lyndia Downie, president and executive director of the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless shelter.

Helen Matthews, a spokeswoman for City Life/Vida Urbana, a Boston-based, eviction-prevention organization, said that while the extension will help, it needs to go farther — until three months after the duration of the pandemic — because the housing instability that the virus has unleashed will have ripple effects for years to come.

“We expect that people will be haunted by rental debt for a long time and struggling to catch up,” Matthews said. “We know that housing instability will have long-term repercussions, especially in Black and brown communities.”

U.S. Census data show that about 29% of black families and 17% of Hispanic renters were behind in rent by the end of last year.

“We also know that evictions often cause a downward spiral in people’s lives, leading in many cases to mental illness and homelessness and, in the age of COVID, death,” Matthews said.

A UCLA study found that mortality in states that lifted their moratoriums was 1.6 times that of states that maintained their moratoriums seven weeks later and grew to a ratio of 5.4 at 16 weeks later or more. Those results, the study concluded, translate to an estimated 433,700 excess COVID-19 cases and 10,700 excess deaths nationally.

Mortality data was unavailable for Massachusetts, which had a moratorium that was stronger than the federal one from April until the state moratorium expired last October. The Boston Housing Authority has kept its eviction moratorium in place.

Statewide, however, since the expiration of the state eviction moratorium, data from the Trial Court of Massachusetts shows that there were 449 cases in December in which a judge gave the go-ahead for a landlord to give a tenant a 48-hour eviction notice.

“It is far better to preserve existing tenancies of people than to spend millions of dollars on a system that only consigns them to shelters,” said Joe Finn, president and executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3tdBSg4