A nationwide ban on evictions ended over the weekend, but 10 states still have protections in place for renters as housing advocates warn that millions of people may be on the brink of homelessness.
The policies, approved by Congress at the end of the year, will give extra time to distribute $46 billion in new rental assistance that states and local officials were allowed to offer back in December and March. Although intended to stave off a tidal wave of evictions, the rental assistance program has been slow to start: Recent Treasury Department data shows that just 6% of the money was doled out over the first half of the year.
To help tenants struggling to pay their rent and other bills, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was designed to assist those applying for federal relief money. Individuals who receive qualified credit can receive up to 18 months of rent covered.
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS DISTRIBUTED JUST 6.5% OF AVAILABLE RENTAL AID IN FIRST HALF OF 2021.
Just applying for the aid can also help some tenants stay in their home for longer: At least four states are temporarily banning eviction against those with pending applications.
Still, at least 10 states have their own eviction freezes in place although some of those protections are poised to lapse soon. Here is a closer look:
California: Roughly 1.6 million individuals or about 14% of the state's population will be protected from eviction until the end of September. From October 1st, landlords will be able to remove people from their homes.
Hawaii: The state has halted evictions through Aug. 6, after which 26,000 individuals could be evicted.
Illinois: An eviction moratorium in Illinois will end by August, although landlords were allowed to start filing for eviction orders at the beginning of the month. There are about 459,000 renters who are behind on their payments in the state.
Maryland: Renters in Maryland are protected from evictions through Aug. 15. About 18% of the state, or 228,000 individuals, are not caught up in rent.
There are some 93,000 people in Minnesota who are behind on their rent; they will be protected from evictions through Sept. 12, although a so-called eviction off-ramp begins Aug. 13.
New Jersey: The eviction ban will remain in place until the official end of the public health emergency designation which expires in October plus an additional two months. That means some 390,000 individuals will be protected by eviction until the end of the year.
New Mexico: The state Supreme Court in New Mexico has not yet set a date for the demonetization moratorium that protects about 72,000 renters who owe money to their landlords.
New York: Roughly 1.2 million New Jersey renters who are behind on their rent are shielded by an eviction moratorium that will run through Aug. 31.
Oregonians: Oregonians can not currently be evicted for rent owing between the months of April 2020 and June 2021; individuals who owe money over that time frame have until the end of February 2022 to cover it.
Washington: About 290,000 renters in Washington need to catch up on unpaid rent. The federal eviction halt, first announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, ended Friday, but without the freeze, more than 15 million people living in the U.S. who are behind on their rent payments could face eviction, according to a study published Wednesday by the Aspen Institute and COVID - 19 Eviction Defense Project.
Although House Democrats staged a late-minute effort to keep the ban alive until the end of the year after the White House announced that Biden would let the moratorium lapse, they failed to secure the necessary support from at least a dozen members of their own caucus.
In the evening of Friday, Biden pleaded with local governments to give all possible steps to disburse the money.
There can be no excuse for any state or locality not applying for rent funding to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic, he said in a statement.