So I've seen varying takes on this. What exactly is happening? Does the executive branch have the power to extend it? Is the Supreme Court blocking it? Does the CDC?

Can someone give me a breakdown pleaaaase?!

  • DetroitLolcat [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The short version: the Supreme Court would probably block it, but Democrats didn't bother trying to extend it regardless.

    The long version:

    The eviction moratorium was put in place by the CDC and was scheduled to end on July 31. The Supreme Court said in late June that the CDC should not have been allowed to issue it in the first place, but said that it can stay in place until July 31 because that's so soon and there's still tons of rental assitance money that hasn't been distributed yet.

    On July 29, Biden said "this is Congress' problem to fix." Nancy Pelosi was like "what the fuck this is the first time I ever heard about this issue how do you expect me to pass this bill in two days." She called a bullshit unanimous consent vote (meaning any 1 objector could block it) and some random Republican did (as expected). Then Nancy said "the mean old GOP blocked the eviction bill" when it's painfully obvious she didn't have the votes to pass it regardless (and even if she did it would get filibustered in the Senate). Biden thought about extending the moratorium unilaterally but decided against it because he assumed he'd lose at the Supreme Court and that the Supreme Court might block even more covid orders in addition to the eviction one. The CDC has said they won't do it because they think they'll lose in court. Biden asked the CDC to extend the moratorium on August 2nd, but shrug.

    So now we have Biden and Pelosi finger-pointing over whose fault it is, half of Congress on vacation now anyway, and a tidal wave of evictions. They didn't even try to extend the moratorium and it's painfully obvious neither Biden nor Congressional Dems really support it.

    Note that in June, the Supreme Court mentioned that the rental assistance money was one reason why there shouldn't be an eviction moratorium. A month later, in early August (today), the rental assistance money still hasn't gone out. There are some lawyers who think that would persuade the Supreme Court, but I have no fucking idea because I can't read Brett Kavanaugh's mind and neither can they.

    • Parent [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      So how big of a backlog of people are there who are about to get evicted and how soon does that happen? Are we looking at another Occupy?

      • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
        ·
        3 years ago

        I keep hearing the figure being an estimated 6 million or so, but idk if it's people or households. It's basically going to be as soon as landlords feel like it, really.

        As to whether we're looking at another occupy: Haha no, this is hellworld. Nothing ever happens unless it's objectively awful.

        • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Yeah I hate to say it but a wave of homeless people isn't going to result in large scale organized protest, it's going to result in large scale organized police action.

        • enron_ceo [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The Census Bureau said 7.4 million households were behind on rent at the end of July