CDC Extends Federal Eviction Moratorium Through June 30

The Centers for Disease Control has extended the federal eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021, preventing landlords from evicting tenants unable to make rental payments. 

In an order issued Monday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated that the eviction of tenants “could be detrimental to public health control measures to slow the spread of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.”

“In the context of a pandemic, eviction moratoria—like quarantine, isolation, and social distancing—can be an effective public health measure utilized to prevent the spread of communicable disease,” the order reads. Eviction moratoria facilitate self-isolation by people who become ill or who are at risk for severe illness from COVID-19 due to an underlying medical condition. They also allow state and local authorities to more easily implement, as needed, stay-at-home and social distancing directives to mitigate the community spread of COVID-19.”

The order cites March 2021 data from the Census Household Pulse Survey, which estimated that over 4 million adults who are not current on rent perceive that they are at imminent risk of eviction and states that “a wave of evictions on that scale would be unprecedented in modern times.” It also notes that in 2020, federal, state, and local eviction moratoria led to more than 1 million fewer evictions than in 2019.

In its most recent Rent Payment Tracker, the National Multifamily Housing Council found 80.4% of apartment renters made full or partial rent payments by March 6, numbers that are far (4.1 percentage points) below those posted in March 2020. 

The moratorium was extended by President Joe Biden in January in one of his first executive orders. But it hasn’t been without its critics, as multiple organizations have sued the CDC over the orders. In mid-March, a federal judge in Ohio ruled that the CDC lacked the authority to enact the last round of national eviction moratoriums, and in late February, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the CDC’s eviction moratorium was unconstitutional. The ruling does not affect states’ eviction moratoriums.