Activists in Maine are welcoming the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s recent order to freeze evictions for some until the end of the year. But they say it’s not a perfect fix.Maria Follyattar is the director of the progressive advocacy group Mainers for Accountable Leadership. She says a federal financial commitment to housing relief is needed or the problem will return in the middle of a Maine winter.
"It is cold. People will be put on the streets. People will owe back rent. People will have back utility bills," Follyattar says. "And more people will be unable to afford living in a pandemic."
The CDC issued the moratorium Tuesday out of concern that forcing people into the street or more crowded living situations would increase the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Maine Affordable Housing Coalition Director Greg Payne says the moratorium decision could change the political conversation surrounding rent relief during the pandemic.
“It’s now not necessarily low-income tenants who are banging on that door and saying, 'Please help make sure we don’t get evicted,'” Payne says.
Rather, he says, it might now be landlords banging on that door. While tenants will likely welcome the relief, he says, that doesn’t account for the fact landlords need the rent money to pay their own bills and employees.
“I imagine landlords across the country are all of a sudden going to be a little bit more invested in helping make sure rental assistance is allocated," he says.
The eviction moratorium will help a large number of Mainers who have been able to scrape by until now, Payne says. But he and other advocates say this fix will only last if Congress specifically funds rent relief before the freeze ends.
To qualify for the moratorium, renters will need to sign a declaration that says they pay as much in rent as they can afford, do not make more than $100,000 a year - or double that for joint filers - and are at risk of homelessness without relief.
Initial estimates indicate that without intervention, 30 to 40 million people could lose their housing by the end of the year.
Updated at 2:07 p.m. Sept. 2, 2020.