The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a moratorium on residential evictions in September which was set to expire on December 31. It was extended and is set to expire on March 31, 2021, unless it is renewed again – not an unlikely scenario.
Under the order tenants are allowed to download a form from the CDC’s website, fill it out, and submit it to landlords. The form declares a tenant unable to pay rent because of financial hardship caused by the Covid19 crisis and protects them from being evicted for not paying their rent.
The Covid19 pandemic – or more specifically the government-mandated lockdowns instituted to attempt to curb the pandemic – have put an estimated 33 million Americans out of work. And that is having detrimental effects on their ability to pay their rent. An estimated 20% of renters were behind on their rent at the end of January according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That translates to roughly 10 million households. [forbes]
It would stand to reason that some type of debt or expense forbearance should accompany the elimination of the livelihood of roughly 10% of the U.S. population if the government is to maintain some type of credibility over the people that it governs. What’s alarming about the CDC’s order is that a federal agency – one with no legislative mandate to do so – has taken it upon itself to unilaterally decide that a significant portion of the American people no longer has to honor its financial commitments.
That agency has used a rather wide umbrella goal of “preventing further spread of Covid19” as the only justification needed for the decision.
The U.S. Congress passed the CARES Act in March. That Act also put a moratorium on evictions into place. It only covered properties participating in federal assistance programs or that used federally backed financing, however. [crs]
That provision in the CARES Act expired last July. Instead of taking the issue back to Congress (i.e. putting the question before the American people), the CDC and the bureaucrats that run it seem to have taken it upon themselves to decide the best course of action.
CDC Rent Eviction form
The fear of government using the Covid19 crisis as an excuse to vastly expand its power in the name of public good, and the slippery slope such actions place the country on, seems to be justified. Covid19 is being used as the impetus to vastly limit Americans’ ability to earn income, move about freely and make their own decisions regarding medical treatment.
One only need understand the breadth of the CDC’s order to see that the same is true in this case. While the CARES Act covered only an estimated 28%-46% of rental units nationally (a substantial amount in its own right), the CDC order covers virtually all rental properties, with the only limitation being a property rented by an individual with more than $99,000 in annual income. [fed regiser]
The order further disproportionately affects not just small, independent landlords, but also a substantial portion of minority landlords.
An estimated 77% of small building units (defined as being comprised of 1-4 rental units) are owned by independent “mom-and-pop” landlords. [forbes]
Around 34% of them are retired; their properties are their only source of income. Small landlords earn about 17% less than owners of single-family homes or large complexes, and the group has the largest share of Black and Latino owners at 15% and 13% respectively. [forbes]
As incomes drop and the costs and work of maintaining small rental buildings increase, mom-and-pop landlords may be driven from their properties, allowing larger real estate companies – often owned or controlled by hedge funds – to swoop in and purchase them at substantial discounts.
That is what some, such as finance expert Catherine Austin Fitts, speculate is the true reason for the Covid19 lockdowns – and their related expansionist policies and goals: a massive transfer of wealth away from Main Street and toward larger, centralized banks and financial entities.