Skip to main content

New top story from Time: Biden’s Last-Ditch Effort to Stop Evictions Frustrates Allies

https://ift.tt/3l8Yugg

The day before a moratorium on evictions is set to expire, President Joe Biden faces criticism from some of his allies for his hasty effort to preserve it—and for not acting sooner to prevent what they view as an imminent housing crisis.

Biden asked Congress on Thursday to act swiftly to extend the ban on evictions, set to expire on Saturday. But Democratic lawmakers are divided on how much longer the moratorium should remain in place, and it isn’t clear whether there’s much Republican support for any extension.

White House aides have long been aware that the moratorium would expire on July 31. But the administration was caught off guard by the recent surge in Covid-19 cases fueled by the delta variant, said a senior White House official. The pandemic’s turn for the worse—combined with the slow dispersal of federal emergency rental assistance money in states and cities—has lent sudden urgency to the plight of Americans struggling to stay in their homes.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

An estimated 3.6 million households who’ve fallen behind on their payments are somewhat or very likely to face eviction over the next two months, should the moratorium expire. About 7.4 million households are behind on rent in total, according to the latest Census Bureau survey.

After a previous moratorium expired July 24, 2020, evictions surged above historic levels — in some communities, to the tune of 495%, said Emily Benfer, a research partner with the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. An administrative moratorium imposed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut filings by about half, she said.

It’s a political dilemma for Biden because on the other side of the issue, there are many small landlords who have struggled financially after the government essentially allowed their tenants to stop paying rent. A $47 billion federal program to provide emergency rent relief had disbursed money to just 635,000 households by the end of June.

Some Democratic lawmakers and housing advocates openly expressed exasperation that the president hasn’t done more, sooner.

“What they have done, and what this is, is reckless and irresponsible,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and progressive leader, said in an interview. “And so now we’re scrambling—but it could have been avoided with better communication and, frankly, more forthright leadership from the White House.”

Kavanaugh’s Opinion

Ocasio-Cortez said evictions should be prevented through the end of the year. But Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat regarded as a centrist, said “a short-term extension makes sense, but we do have to return to the market.”

The administration’s reluctance to more aggressively pursue an extension of the moratorium was rooted in part in a June Supreme Court order that limited the CDC’s authority to keep it in place.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined a 5-4 majority in denying a request from landlords and real-estate trade associations to block the moratorium. But he wrote that he thought the CDC had exceeded its power in imposing its ban, and that he would require congressional authorization beyond July 31 to extend it.

The senior White House official said Biden’s aides were concerned that if they tested the Supreme Court by asking the CDC to extend the moratorium despite Kavanaugh’s opinion, the court’s conservative majority might respond by more broadly limiting the agency’s power.

The White House has instead tried to prepare for the end of the moratorium. In a July 21 meeting, the White House’s coordinator for Biden’s pandemic relief program, Gene Sperling, said the administration was committed to doing “everything it can to make sure cities and states provide relief to renters and landlords,” the White House said in a statement on the event, which had more than 2,000 participants from across the country.

But liberal advocates for affordable housing are dismayed.

“I just want to see some boldness to protect the people who elected him president and that’s not what I am seeing at all,” said Sophia Lopez, deputy campaign director at Action Center on Race and the Economy, a left-leaning group. “We are all disappointed and grappling with what this means for all of the millions of people,” she said of the eviction moratorium’s imminent expiration.

The White House’s inaction leaves the issue in the hands of Congress. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said lawmakers are “trying to explore all options to get this extended.”

Kavanaugh’s position, he said, “makes it really hard for the administration to move unilaterally. I’m hoping Congress, we can figure out a way forward.”

Slow-Moving Aid

The end of the moratorium will look different from state to state. Some states, such as New York and California, and cities have their own eviction bans in place. And different jurisdictions have different rules for filing eviction notices, so the pace will vary.

In Houston, for example, there are likely to be filings in court as early as Monday. Landlords in Boston, on the other hand, have to give tenants a 14-day notice, said Peter Hepburn, an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers and research fellow at the Eviction Lab.

Additionally complicating the situation—for both tenants and landlords—is the slow dispersal of federal emergency rental assistance. Only about 12% of the $47 billion has been distributed so far.

“The most important thing is to continue to get this money out the door to pay people’s back rent and to pay these landlords that have not gotten paid for months,” Brown said.

The money has been distributed by the Treasury Department, rather than the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and states and cities have then had to create systems to pass it on to landlords.

Those efforts have been uneven. An Urban Institute survey found that more than half of renters and 40% of mom-and-pop landlords were unaware the rental assistance even exists.

—With assistance from Jennifer Epstein.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FOX NEWS: Americans will suffer 5 sweaty, sleepless nights before turning on the AC for the summer, survey finds Nearly half of Americans wouldn’t date someone who didn’t have the same thermostat etiquette as them, according to new research.

Americans will suffer 5 sweaty, sleepless nights before turning on the AC for the summer, survey finds Nearly half of Americans wouldn’t date someone who didn’t have the same thermostat etiquette as them, according to new research. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2Ay0ABA

New top story from Time: A COVID Outbreak Sparked by Partying Teens Leads to 5,000 Being Quarantined in Spain

https://ift.tt/2UJaeL7 MADRID — Almost 5,000 people are in quarantine after vacationing high school students triggered a major COVID-19 outbreak on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, a senior official said Monday. Authorities have confirmed almost 1,200 positive cases from the outbreak, Spain’s emergency health response coordinator, Fernando Simón said. The partying teens celebrating the end of their university entrance exams last week created a “perfect breeding ground” for the virus as they mixed with others from around Spain and abroad, Simón told a news conference. Mallorca health authorities carried out mass testing on hundreds of students after the outbreak became clear. It is believed to have spread as hundreds of partying students gathered at a concert and street parties. Officials have so far traced 5,126 travelers to Mallorca. More than 900 COVID-19 cases in eight regions across mainland Spain have been traced back to the outbreak. Scores of infected teens are...

PM Modi lauds IFS officers for their work towards serving nation, furthering national interests https://ift.tt/36HoEzw

Greeting Indian Foreign Service officers on IFS day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that their work towards serving the nation and furthering national interests globally are commendable. Their efforts during the Vande Bharat Mission, which was launched to bring Indians home from abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic as international travel came to a halt, and other related help to our citizens and other nations is noteworthy, Modi added.

FOX NEWS: Couple gets married at 'most beautiful' Taco Bell: 'It was the best of both worlds' Analicia Garcia, 24, and Kyle Howser, 25, from Sacramento, California, got married on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and had their reception at the famous Pacifica, California, Taco Bell.

Couple gets married at 'most beautiful' Taco Bell: 'It was the best of both worlds' Analicia Garcia, 24, and Kyle Howser, 25, from Sacramento, California, got married on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and had their reception at the famous Pacifica, California, Taco Bell. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/iznRBtFTJ

New top story from Time: ‘It’s a Catastrophe.’ Iranians Turn to Black Market for Vaccines as COVID-19 Deaths Hit New Highs

https://ift.tt/3AODY94 In January, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the sudden announcement that American and British-made COVID-19 vaccines would be “forbidden” as they were “completely untrustworthy.” Almost nine months later, Iran is facing its worst surge in the virus to date — a record number of deaths and infections per day with nearly 4.2 million COVID-19 patients across the country , and a healthcare system near collapse. “It’s a catastrophe; and there is nothing we can do,” said an anesthesiology resident in one of Tehran’s public hospitals who due to the current surge is tasked to oversee the ICU ward for COVID-19 patients. “We can’t treat them nor help them; so all I can ask people to do is to stay home and do whatever it takes to not get exposed.” The doctor requested anonymity in order to speak freely; others interviewed by TIME asked to be identified only by their first name. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The scale of the crisis is such ...

New Sculptures Light up Van Ness Avenue

New Sculptures Light up Van Ness Avenue By Luis “Loui” Apolonio Light sculpture at Van Ness Avenue and O'Farrell Street Spectators gathered both online and in person to watch new lighting sculptures on Van Ness turned on for the first time on March 31, 2022. The whimsical and brightly colored sculptures located on the new Van Ness BRT boarding platform between Geary and O’Farrell are made of steel with LED lights inside on a timer set to illuminate at night.  The lighting event was kicked off with SFMTA Director Jeff Tumlin and MTAB Chair Gwyneth Borden serving as emcees. Mary Chou, Director of Public Arts and Collections at the San Francisco Arts Commission, spoke about the art installation itself, as well as the process for selecting the artist who would be awarded the project. In addition, Maddy Ruvolo, a member of the SFMTA’s Accessible Services team and a recently appointed member of President Biden’s U.S. Access Board, shared the importance of having accessibility as a ...

Happy Lunar New Year 2022: Year of the Tiger 

Happy Lunar New Year 2022: Year of the Tiger  By Pamela Johnson Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in many Asian communities. Diverse San Franciscan communities including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese people have long celebrated this festive occasion.  For many, the Lunar New Year brings a fresh mindset and resolutions for happiness and health. A zodiac animal with specific traits represents each year in the repeating zodiac cycle of 12 years. 2022 is the Year of the Tiger, the third animal in the zodiac. The tiger is considered courageous and adventurous.   The holiday follows the moon's cycles and usually begins in late January or early February. This year Lunar New Year begins February 1.   Fun Fact: In the lunar calendar, the Vietnamese zodiac and the Chinese zodiac are similar, but the Vietnamese zodiac includes a cat while the Chinese ...

New T Third Connecting Chinatown to Sunnydale Starts Saturday

New T Third Connecting Chinatown to Sunnydale Starts Saturday By Christopher Ward New Muni Metro map. This Saturday the T Third starts its long-awaited new route connecting Chinatown-Rose Pak Station from 4th & King in Central Subway, Mondays through Fridays, 6 a.m. to midnight every 10 minutes and Saturdays and Sundays, 8 a.m. to midnight every 12 minutes.   The K Ingleside will now travel between Balboa Park and Embarcadero Station. Customers using Embarcadero & Folsom, Embarcadero & Brannan and 2nd and King platforms should transfer to the N Judah at Powell Station or 4th & King. Watch the new Muni Metro service  map animations . The following bus service changes also start this Saturday: The T Third Bus will now run along 3rd and 4th Streets in SoMa and on Stockton Street north of Market Street to align with the new T Third rail line and will no longer travel on the Embarcadero and Market Street.   The 6 Haight/Parnassus  will now...

Smarter Traffic Signals Prioritize Transit and People

Smarter Traffic Signals Prioritize Transit and People By Robert Lim Have you ever wondered how traffic signals could better balance the needs of all road users, whether driving, bicycling, walking or taking Muni? The SFMTA is rolling out its Connected Corridor Pilot this month to use transit platform and traffic signal sensor data to inform signal timing adjustments. The pilot also aims to collect information to support transit efficiency and street safety improvements.  Traffic engineers use signal timing adjustments as a tool to prioritize the flow of travel in specific directions or for different travel modes – Muni, people walking or driving – to meet the changing demands of the road network across different timepoints in a day. The Connected Corridors Pilot seeks to push the envelope of innovation by investing in advanced technologies, funded through a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) grant. These tools will better position the city to serve the potential future ne...

Free Muni and Paratransit to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments

Free Muni and Paratransit to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments By Phillip Pierce Free Muni and Paratransit to COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Starting on Tuesday, February 23, Muni and Paratransit will be free for those traveling to get vaccinated for COVID-19. This includes trips in both directions. The SFMTA is also providing additional access to taxi service for those who use the  Essential Trip Card . These rides are good for trips to the city-sponsored high-volume vaccine sites, hospitals or anywhere else that is offering vaccines. More information on the city-sponsored sites as well as directions on how to get there can be found on  the city vaccination website. We know that getting San Franciscans vaccinated is the city’s highest priority. This program is designed to eliminate transportation and cost barriers to receiving this life-changing vaccine. How to Ride on Muni Use our  trip planner  or  service map  to find the best way to get to your vacc...