(Washington) Under pressure from the Democratic left, US health officials on Tuesday announced a new moratorium on tenant evictions through October, citing public health risks in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
“The emergence of the delta variant has rapidly accelerated infection in the United States, putting more Americans at greater risk, especially if they are not vaccinated,” wrote the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). , US Federal Public Health Agency, Rochelle Walinsky.
“This moratorium is the right thing to do so that people stay at home and not in gathering places where COVID-19 is spreading,” she explained.
This moratorium will last until October 3.
President Joe Biden of the White House hopes that, even if there is a risk of being challenged in court, he will “likely leave additional time” to pay renters that Congress appropriated as early as February to help them pay their rents.
In particular, bureaucratic reasons greatly slow down such payments. Only $3 billion was distributed to struggling tenants, of the total envelope of $46 billion, of which $25 billion has already been sent to states and local communities.
The previous moratorium placed in September 2020 by the CDC expired on July 31.
A June Supreme Court ruling stipulated that the extension should be passed by Congress, without being decided by the CDC.
Anger against the president, accused of not finding a timely solution, has been raging for days on the left wing of the Democratic Party.
House politician Corey Bush, who was herself homeless, had been camping in front of the Capitol, the seat of Congress in Washington, since Friday, calling on Congress and the White House to act without further delay while 11 million people were threatened with eviction.
“Today our movement moved mountains,” Cory Bush wrote on Twitter Tuesday, welcoming the news of the new freeze on the steps of the Capitol, accompanied in particular by young Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Extreme twitteraholic. Passionate travel nerd. Hardcore zombie trailblazer. Web fanatic. Evil bacon geek.”