CDC can't stop evictions, as Biden calls on states to act

The White House says that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium."

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium” 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 “very likely” be evicted from their rentals in the next two months. But the Biden administration said it is unable to take action, though it noted that state-level efforts to stop evictions would spare a third of the country from evictions over the next month. “Our team is redoubling efforts to identify all available legal authorities to provide necessary protections,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a Monday statement. The Biden administration also emphasized in the statement that $46.5 billion has been provided to keep renters in their homes, but “too many states and cities have been too slow to act.”