The Reality of Fighting Evictions During a Pandemic

Due to production issues, we are not running this podcast today. Instead, we are replaying a timely episode we recorded last year about California’s devastating forest fires: The Fire This Time: How Climate Change Shifts Our Understanding of Suffering. We’ll see you all next week with a fresh episode.

Last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an eviction moratorium that went into effect last September and was initially slated to extend until the end of the year. But the order ended up being extended several times, both by Congress and by the CDC, until it expired last week at the end of July.

After several day-lapse, the Biden administration announced this Tuesday that the CDC would institute its own eviction ban that would run through October 3 and apply to “counties experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels” of Covid-19. Under this initiative, state and local programs would be able to both up their community’s vaccination rates and distribute rent relief.

But Biden’s new moratorium immediately drew fire from constitutional scholars who questioned the moratorium’s legal authority. It also appeared to contradict the White House’s own message that the CDC lacked authority to institute this and that it was the responsibility of Congress. When Congress went into an multiweek recess, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky explained the reversal on the delta variant.

“The emergence of the delta variant has led to a rapid acceleration of community transmission in the United States, putting more Americans at increased risk, especially if they are unvaccinated,” she said in a statement. “This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads.”

Nicole Steward is Legal Director for Open Hands Legal Services in Manhattan. She has been a public interest lawyer in New York City since 2008 and focuses on housing laws and evictions.

Steward joined global media manager Morgan Lee and executive editor Ted Olsen to discuss what these moratoriums mean for landlords and clients and how we might think through this issue as a Christian.