CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield signed a declaration at the beginning of September imposing a limited national moratorium on evictions, with the hope that it would help curb the spread of COVID-19 within the United States. As our nation exceeded 200,000 deaths just yesterday, our departed countrymen now account for over 21% of all fatal cases worldwide. The inability of state and local officials around the country to contain the spread of COVID, supporters of the moratorium explain, means the CDC Director is empowered by 42 CFR § 70.2 to take necessary steps toward containment, including a national moratorium on evictions.
The moratorium went into effect on September 4, and runs through December 31. It is supposed to be able to stop an eviction from moving forward if: (1) the tenant has been unable to pay rent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) the tenant would either have to move in with someone in a too-small space, or be homeless, as a result of being evicted; and (3) either makes less than $99,000 per year, or received a stimulus check, or did not have to pay federal income tax in 2019.
Despite the controversy surrounding the eviction moratorium, evictions have continued at a rapidfire clip here in Houston. In fact, a review by Houston Public Media of local evictions during the first week of the moratorium found only one eviction out of 100 in Harris County was prevented by the moratorium.
Indeed, Houston made the national news with this CNN story about local evictions. The five minute clip went viral, as Houston was held up as a microcosm of the economic devastation beginning to take hold in many major American cities.
One reason the CDC moratorium is failing to halt evictions is that struggling tenants are unaware they are only protected by the moratorium if they complete a CDC Declaration.
Another reason is that some landlords have been skipping the courts altogether, relying on time tested strong-arm techniques to remove nonpaying tenants without regard for their rights. Threats and intimidation may be old fashioned, but this method now has a high tech spin, thanks to an app called Civvl. Described by Vice media as “Uber, but for evicting people,” Civvl harnesses the power of the gig economy by allowing landlords to hire anyone willing to advertise themselves as an “eviction crew” to show up at a property, and start dumping the possessions contained within. Tenant rights watchdogs are alarmed, because just as an Uber driver is unlikely to be an expert on the ins-and-outs of traffic law, a gig economy “eviction crew” might be ignorant of local tenant rights, even to the point of unknowingly executing illegal, extrajudicial evictions.
While the efficacy of the CDC moratorium is yet to be fully determined, this has not stopped landlords from teaming together through the National Apartment Association to file suit in federal court, hoping to get the moratorium deemed unconstitutional and thrown out. The initial suit was filed in Georgia, where the CDC is located, on behalf of a landlord in Virginia. This effort has been spearheaded by the non-profit, pro bono, non-partisan law firm the New Civil Liberties Alliance, an organization which exists to “protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State.”