PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Millions of renters could face the threat of eviction now that the nationwide moratorium has expired, and House Democrats say they want President Joe Biden's administration to act.
The White House is urging state and local governments to pick up the pace getting COVID-19 relief money out to help renters faster.
A recent survey found thousands of households in the region are behind on rent, including one in five Philadelphia renters. Even in Bucks, Montgomery and Chester Counties, 13% of renters are in arrears. Delaware County has 17% falling behind.
Now that the moratorium has expired, landlords can start or resume eviction proceedings against those renters.
Democratic leaders in the U.S. House say the Biden administration needs to extend the moratorium through October. They say it’s a "moral imperative to keep people from being put out on the street, which also contributes to the public health emergency."
It was the CDC that established the moratorium to begin with. The White House, however, says it can only do so much because of a Supreme Court ruling last month that allowed the moratorium to be extended through the end of July. Biden last week said it was Congress that needed to get something done on this one.
House Democrats couldn’t nail anything down before their summer recess started, and they say it would likely stall in the Senate anyway.
Political analyst Larry Sabato says the blame game is a distracton from the real problem.
"There’s a lot of criticism to go around, but I think it’s wrong just to focus the criticism on Congress. This is a problem for states and localities and they simply haven’t done the job that they should have done," he said.
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State and local governments have somewhere around $47 billion to spend for renters and landlords, but analysts say that money is not getting out fast enough.
Pennsylvania officials want people to seek out the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Information about rental assistance is available here for each county in southeastern Pennsylvania:
• Philadelphia
• Bucks
• Chester
• Delaware
• Montgomery
New Jersey also has a program in place, but the Garden State has its own eviction moratorium through the end of the year.