Bob Pinnegar, president and CEO of the National Apartment Association argued on Cavuto: Coast to Coast on Thursday that the backbone of the nation's rental housing stock is at risk with the latest moratorium on eviction.
Pinnegar was referring to independent rental owners who own a building with one to four units, which is more than half of the America's housing stock at 53%.
Last week, NAA filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to recover damages on behalf of rental housing providers that have suffered severe economic losses under the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overreaching federal eviction moratorium, according to a news release.
The association, which claims to be the first to take legal action seeking compensation for the policy, argues that the federal eviction moratorium jeopardizes the long-term viability of housing infrastructure and sets a dangerous precedent for future disaster response measures.
The lawsuit comes after President Biden initially balked at applying the eviction moratorium by himself. He cited an opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh from June saying any further extensions of the moratorium would have to be done by Congress.
But Congress did not have the votes to extend the moratorium. And after significant legal pressure from the left wing of his party, Biden said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would move forward with a new eviction ban despite intense political concerns.
The bulk of scholars say it is likely not pass constitutional muster, the president said Tuesday.
White House Press Secretary Biden said Wednesday but that the White House does not believe most Americans care whether or not the President's policies are legal, noting that Jen Psaki will do everything in his power to make sure they can stay in their homes as long as possible.
The judge in the District Court gave Biden administration until Friday, 9 a.m. to respond to the emergency motion. The motion asks the court to vacate its May 14 order which allowed the government to continue withholding the eviction moratorium despite the fact the court had said it was illegal.
If the stay pending appeal is vacated then the eviction moratorium will no longer be in effect.
The case could quickly escalate to the Superior Court of Appeals or Supreme Court no matter the outcome in the District Court.
On Thursday Neil Cavuto told the host Pinnegar that this is the seventh time this Moratorium has been extended and we are really starting to see an erosion of the nation's rental housing stock, especially with the mom-and-pop operators that have single family homes.
According to a new survey from the National Multifamily Housing Council 100% of residential owners and managers surveyed worked with residents faced with financial hardships during the COVID 19 pandemic.
On Thursday, Pinnegar pointed to data from another survey by the National Rental Home Council - a Washington D.C. - based trade advocacy group.
The February survey of 1,000 single-family landlords owning between one and three small homes, reported about 23% of such owners planned to sell at least one property due to hardships caused by the eviction ban, Reuters reported.
If we lost that 36% of the nation's housing stock, we are in desperate trouble.
On Thursday, a coalition of housing groups led by the Alabama Association of Realtors filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. challenging the latest eviction moratorium, calling the Biden administration's action nakedly political and unlawful.
The Treasury Department announced that last month local officials didled out just $3 billion in aid over the course of the first half of the year, or roughly 6.6% of the $45 billion program intended to keep millions of renters at their homes. In total, it has provided relief to a fraction of the 1.2 million households that have reported being very likely to face eviction in the next two months, the Department said in a news release.
Pinnegar held that there is simply not enough money authorized by Congress to alleviate the dire situation. He told Cavuto that in reality, the total rent debt is nearly double what had already been authorized and unfortunately the system that was put together is a very decentralized system without standards or measures how the renters can be successful.
Earlier, Pinnegar stressed that there is an urgent need for more aid.