If the only people you listened to about the expiration of the eviction moratorium were Washington Democrats, you would be forgiven for feeling shame about kicking thousands of families to the curb because Congress wouldn’t extend the illegal action put in place by the Centers for Disease Control in March 2020 that prevents landlords from evicting anyone for almost any reason.
The CDC? Yes, you read that correctly. The CDC initiated the eviction moratorium as a pandemic measure. They believed that if tens of thousands of families and individuals were to be evicted, they would have to move into Aunt Mary’s house or a shelter and contribute to the spread of the coronavirus.
At the time, only old fuddy-duddy constitutionalists wondered if the CDC actually like, you know, had that authority to do that to begin with. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court finally said categorically that they didn’t have the authority. But since the moratorium was set to expire on July 31 anyway, the court refused to order immediate relief for the plaintiffs.
Now, as it is, many states have their own moratoriums still in place. Also, despite the attempt to portray landlords as greedy Mr. Potter-type villains, most landlords made payment arrangements with their tenants and would continue to honor those arrangements because they’d rather have the money eventually than go through the time and expense of evicting someone.
But it’s true that there are going to be families and individuals who are going to be evicted. But will they be forced to leave because the pandemic is preventing them from working? That’s a dubious argument, especially today when businesses are begging for workers.
But if you listen to radical Democrats like some of the Squad members who camped out on the Capitol steps on Saturday night, you’d think it was going to be an eviction free-for-all brought about because heartless, racist landlords would rather make poor people suffer than get their money.
Good morning. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight.
We could have extended it yesterday, but some Democrats went on vacation instead.
We slept at the Capitol last night to ask them to come back and do their jobs.
Today’s their last chance. We’re still here. pic.twitter.com/vnwIrAokll
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) July 31, 2021
What drama! What pathos! What dedication to the cause!
What a load of crap.
In fact, most landlords are small businessmen who, despite not getting rent money, still have to pay taxes, maintenance, and a mortgage on the property. What does the Squad expect them to do?
Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli mocked the display as a woke “Hooverville” — evoking images of the Great Depression shantytowns thrown up by the down-and-out during President Herbert Hoover’s administration.
“The Capitol is looking like everywhere else in the US where the far-left is in charge,” Borrelli said.
New York City GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa added that the “Squad camp” reminded him of Penn Station.
“The only thing this didn’t have was marshmallows around an open fire,” he quipped.
Indeed, the only “crisis” is in the incompetence of state and local governments that have distributed only about $3 billion in rental assistance out of a whopping total of $47 billion that has been authorized in two pandemic relief bills passed by Congress.
The money is sitting there — has been sitting unused for months. The paperwork requirements are preventing a lot of people from accessing the assistance they need. Perhaps if the Squad wanted to do something useful, they could start helping those threatened with eviction rather than rail against rich people wanting to kick the poor out of their rented domiciles.
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