White House scrambles to distribute housing assistance and avert August eviction wave

Biden officials scramble to avert August eviction wave The Biden administration is rushing to avoid millions of evictions during a brutally hot summer with a push to get billions of dollars in rental assistance out to tenants and landlords. Sylvan Lane TheHill

The Biden administration is rushing to avoid millions of evictions during a brutally hot summer with a push to get billions of dollars in rental assistance out to tenants and landlords.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week issued what will likely be the final extension of its eviction moratorium, essentially lighting the fuse on a potential eviction time bomb.

“It really raises the stakes for all of us,” said Gene Sperling, the White House COVID-19 aid czar, on a Monday webinar hosted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

We need to keep sprinting and sprinting and sprinting,” he added. “Time is of the essence, and we need to do everything in our power to prevent each and every painful unnecessary eviction that we can prevent.”

Democratic lawmakers and housing advocates who fiercely supported the CDC’s earlier eviction bans have been silent on calling for a longer extension but have voiced concerns about several obstacles hindering the White House’s rental aid efforts.

“This is the right thing to do to prevent increases in homelessness as Congress and the administration work together to ensure pandemic housing relief provided by Congress,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.

“Extending the moratoria until local communities can distribute this relief will be the difference between millions of families losing or remaining in their homes.”

The Treasury Department has already disbursed the entirety of roughly $46 billion in rental aid approved through several COVID-19 relief laws intended to keep renters current with landlords they have been unable to pay during the pandemic. Even so, it’s unclear how much of that aid has actually made it to either landlords or tenants with just over a month before the ban expires. ...

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