WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The White House said Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 鈥渦nable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium鈥� and asked that states and local governments put in policies to keep renters in their homes.
Mass evictions could potentially worsen the recent spread of the COVID-19 delta variant as roughly 1.4 million households told the Census Bureau they could 鈥渧ery likely鈥� be evicted from their rentals in the next two months. The prospect of mass evictions has led to criticism that the Biden administration was slow to address the end of the moratorium in August.
But the White House says it doesn鈥檛 see a path for it to extend the moratorium. That鈥檚 largely because the Supreme Court signaled in a 5-4 vote in late June that it wouldn鈥檛 back further extensions, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing that Congress would have to act to extend the moratorium. The White House noted that state-level efforts to stop evictions would spare a third of the country from evictions over the next month.
The Biden administration emphasized in a statement that $46.5 billion has been provided to keep renters in their homes, but 鈥渢oo many states and cities have been too slow to act.鈥� It's still investigating any additional legal options to forestall the evictions, but Gene Sperling, who oversees the coronavirus relief plans, put the burden on states and local governments to get out federal aid and stop evictions.
鈥淭he president is clear: If some states and localities can get this out efficiently and effectively there鈥檚 no reason every state and locality can't,鈥� Sperling told reporters at Monday's White House briefing. 鈥淭here is simply no excuse, no place to hide for any state or locality that is failing to accelerate their emergency鈥� rental assistance.
Sperling said the administration will look for additional legal avenues. Yet he also stressed the complexity of the problem by also saying that the Trump administration developed guidelines for providing aid to renters and landlords that were unworkable. Those guidelines which required extensive documentation were changed once Biden was in office.
鈥淭his is not an easy task," Sperling said. 鈥淲e as a country have never had a national infrastructure or national policy for preventing avoidable evictions.鈥�
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday it's 鈥渦nfathomable鈥� that Americans will be ousted from their homes during the COVID-19 crisis, and backed by the Congressional Black Caucus intensified pressure on the Biden administration to immediately extend .
An estimated 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction during a COVID-19 surge, , after the eviction ban expired over the weekend.
Pelosi and the Democratic leadership has called it a 鈥渕oral imperative鈥� to reinstate the eviction ban until some $47 billion in already approved housing aid can be distributed to renters and landlords owed back pay. They called on President Joe Biden's administration to extend the moratorium through Oct. 18.
鈥淲e all agree that the eviction crisis is an enormous challenge to the conscience of our country,鈥� Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues. 鈥淚t is unfathomable that we would not act to prevent people from being evicted.鈥�
Pelosi said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would hold a virtual briefing Tuesday with lawmakers as they push to more quickly ensure the states distribute the federal aid.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio., the chairwoman of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, said the group has been in talks with the White House.
鈥淭housands of Black families and children could lose the roof over their heads at a time when the deadly pandemic is surging once again,鈥� she said in a statement.
The CDC put the ban in place as part of the COVID-19 response when jobs shifted and many workers lost income. The ban was intended to hold back the spread of the virus among people put out on the streets and into shelters.
he was allowing the ban to expire rather than challenge the .
Democratic lawmakers said they were caught by surprise by Biden's decision on Thursday, days before the moratorium was set to expire, creating frustration and anger and exposing a rare rift with the administration.
Congress was unable to pass legislation swiftly to extend the ban, which expired at midnight Saturday, and the House Democratic leaders have said it was now up to Biden鈥檚 administration to act.
The administration and its allies in Congress have focused on the slow pace of pandemic relief already approved by Congress, nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states that has not made it to to renters and landlords owed payments. Biden has called on local governments to 鈥渢ake all possible steps鈥� to disburse the funds immediately.
Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, appeared on 鈥淔ox News Sunday鈥� to echo that sentiment. 鈥淣o landlord should evict without seeking that rental assistance, and states and localities need to get that money out urgently, and they can do that,鈥� Deese said.
Landlords also have argued for speeding up the distribution of rental assistance and opposed another extension of the moratorium.
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Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.
Lisa Mascaro And Josh Boak, The Associated Press
