CRE Groups Oppose CDC's New Eviction Moratorium
A coalition of 11 commercial real estate industry groups including the National Multifamily Housing Council is pushing back against the new 60-day eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday.
The CCIM Institute, Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, Institute of Real Estate Management, Manufactured Housing Institute, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Affordable Housing Management Association, National Apartment Association, National Association of Home Builders and National Association of Residential Property Managers joined the NMHC in opposition to the new moratorium, issuing a statement condemning the CDC’s decision to halt evictions once more.
“The recent CDC order will leave rental housing providers in legal limbo while many renters continue to accrue more and more back rent and face a mounting debt cliff,” the groups said in a statement issued Wednesday.
The National Apartment Association is suing the federal government for back rent, CBS News reported. The NAA had also sued to halt the CDC’s previous moratorium, which expired at the end of July.
“Further, a continued moratorium fails to deliver the needed solutions to address the underlying financial distress faced by renters and puts the overall stability of the rental housing sector and broader real estate market in peril,” the statement read.
The groups underscored that the most effective way to help renters who are struggling to stay housed is for government officials at the federal, state and local levels to get the billions of dollars in available rental assistance into the hands of the people who need it.
A substantial majority of the roughly $46B that has been set aside to help struggling renters has not been distributed. The Washington Post reported that just 12% of the first $25B in rent relief had been given out in the six months since the funding had first been approved by then-President Donald Trump and that even less of the subsequent $21.5B approved for the program by President Joe Biden in March had made its way to relief applicants.
The new moratorium goes into effect as the delta variant has caused infection rates to rise across the country and targets areas where coronavirus transmission is high. The protections are estimated to apply to 90% of the population nationwide, the Los Angeles Times reports.
