Dems Fail To Extend The Eviction Moratorium-- Did They Even Try?

Conservatives must be walking around with boners today. Evictions begin again! And when I say "conservatives," you now what I mean: all Republicans and the shit-eating New Dems and Blue Dogs from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who the corporate media protects by calling them "moderates" instead of what they are. And, yes, at least a dozen of those corrupt right-wing Democraps refused to back extending the eviction moratorium.

Or was the extension brouhaha yesterday just a show-- a charade? If it was for real, why didn't Pelosi work on it last month or last week or even Monday or Tuesday? Why wait 'til Friday... if you're serious? (And it pretty much didn't matter anyway, since the Senate Republicans certainly would have filibustered it.) So... a charade... and the CDC moratorium-- already extended by the Supreme Court-- dies today. And families start getting kicked out of their homes. (Hence the conservatives walking around with boners.)

On Thursday, President Nothing-Burger pretending to be concerned, called on Congress to pass something to extend the moratorium til December 31. He's so horrible; I'm getting ready to start referring to him as a piece of shit, since even if he's more senile than he appears, he's certainly aware that you don't call for legislation to be passed on Thursday that you need by Saturday.

Pelosi tried getting conservative Democrats to go along with a compromise-- to not save families all the way 'til the end of the year but just mid-October. Don't you love it when Democrats negotiate with themselves?

Yesterday, North Carolina anti-family extremist Patrick McHenry (R) said "The CDC order was to expire at the end of this month. They knew that in February. Democrats had the opportunity to change that. They didn't. We've heard the priority. We've heard the emergency. But this is not an emergency. On this day it's a tragedy that it's this level of incompetency that we didn't take action in February, March, April, May, June. Even July."

When Pelosi's team approached conservative Democrats about voting to extend the eviction moratorium, many refused... just like the closet Republicans they are. One staffer told CNN that the conservative Dems threatened to get on planes and not proxy vote. Conservatives say that the $46.5 billion in rental aid allocated by Congress by pandemic relief measures is "still largely unspent," reported The Hill, "with only $3 billion distributed to renters by state and local governments so far. But Democrats pushing to extend the moratorium argued that renters shouldn’t be evicted in the meantime as a result of bureaucratic failures. 'As we do so, we urge states and localities to expeditiously distribute the money that Congress has allocated to renters in need,' Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues. 'Families must not pay the price for that.' The National Association of Realtors urged lawmakers to direct rental assistance toward housing providers in a statement opposing another extension of the eviction moratorium."

"A New Generation Of Leaders" by Nancy Ohanian-- Mondaire, Jamie, Jamaal, Cori

Shervin Aazami, a progressive challenger for a blue seat in the San Fernando Valley, was outraged. "I can’t begin to describe how immoral and unforgivable it is that Democrats left town without passing an extension to the eviction moratorium," he said. "Tonight, nearly 554,000 Americans are unhoused and sleeping in their cars, in a tent, or on the street. Meanwhile, we have 15 million Americans - half of them children-- living in households that are on the verge of eviction as the moratorium expires in mere hours. We are about to witness a tsunami of people lose their homes and some Democrats are more concerned about their personal vacations. It’s disgusting and shameful. How could Pelosi and Hoyer not have kept their caucus in town to pass an extension? How was this a surprise? Poverty is unequivocally a policy choice. Cori Bush is sleeping outside the Capitol tonight. I’d be out there with her."

Over a dozen Democrats balked at the extension, although no one will name them and none of them have the guts to admit publicly that they favor evictions. These are the 20 most right-wing corporate DINOs in the House and the 12 surely came from this group of vampires-- from bad to worst:

• Conor Lamb (PA)

• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)

• Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX)

• Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)

• Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL)

• Raul Ruiz (New Dem-CA)

• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)

• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)

• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)

• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)

• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)

• Cheri Bustos (New Dem-IL)

• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)

• Sean Patrick Maloney, DCCC Chair (New Dem-NY)

• Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)

• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)

• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)

• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)

• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)

CBS News' Irina Ivanova reported that the expiration of the moratorium "putting millions of people at risk of losing their homes. Housing advocates warn that a wave of evictions could be coming, with as many as 11 million people behind on their rent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. The CBPP estimated that about 16% of U.S. households were behind on rent-- double the pre-pandemic level. But the rent burden is spread unequally around the country.

In some states, more than a quarter of renters are behind on payments, according to CPBB calculations. The Southeast is the hardest hit: 29% of renters in Mississippi and 28% in South Carolina were behind in the first week of July, according to the CBPP's calculations. In Georgia, 1 in 4 isn't caught up on rent.

"The more renters that you have that are struggling, as a proportion of the population, the more strain it can put on local communities," said Aaron Dibner-Dunlap, a senior research scientists at Surgo Ventures, a public-health nonprofit.

Surgo Ventures identified 250 counties where more than 1 in 5 renters were behind, which Surgo dubbed most at risk. The list includes all but four counties in South Carolina, and roughly half the counties in Georgia and Mississippi. None of the states currently have eviction protections in place beyond the federal government's CDC's order.

Nationwide, Black renters are more than twice as likely to be behind on rent than their White counterparts, according to the CBPP, while Latino and Asian renters are one-and-a-half times as likely. Historically, Black renters have faced eviction at the highest rates.

The eviction surge that's expected to begin after the national moratorium's July 31 deadline will hit unevenly across the country, housing advocates say. But it's been building throughout the pandemic.

In some jurisdictions, courts have allowed eviction cases to proceed even while the federal moratorium has been in place, noted Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project. (The moratorium only prevents the physical ejection of a tenant, not the legal process to evict.)

That means some landlords "have evictions all teed up and ready to go," Dunn said. "The landlord already has the eviction order in hand, and just has to wait until the CDC restriction is lifted to have it physically executed."

"You could see people basically being put out on the street the first week of August, because there's no remaining procedures to go through," he said.

At the other extreme, seven states will continue to have renter protections for at least another month-- some for much longer.

In New Jersey, renters can't be evicted until January 2022. New Mexico's state supreme court has halted evictions with no end date planned. California, Minnesota and Washington state have protections in place until October, while evictions in Illinois and New York are paused until September. Two other states, Hawaii and Maryland, have eviction protections set to expire in mid-August.

...Despite more than 450 different programs around the country to help renters in distress, just about one-tenth of the financial aid Congress has allocated in rental assistance has made its way to renters. Housing advocates have pointed to the layers of paperwork and other bureaucratic delays in programs as a reason to extend eviction protections nationwide.

Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, saw right through the bullshit-- and called it:

“It is unacceptable that the House adjourned without urgently passing legislation that our Progressive Caucus members supported to keep people in their homes when more than 11.4 million people will begin facing eviction tomorrow. “The eviction moratorium was meant to conclude with the end of the pandemic, but that crisis is nowhere near over. Case numbers and hospitalizations are rising again, and just this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reinstated an indoor mask mandate. And with recent estimates that up to 80 percent of households who are behind on rent and at risk of eviction live in communities with over 100 percent COVID-19 case growth rates in July, mass evictions are certain to exacerbate the spread of the virus. “We stand by our call for the White House to act with the urgency this crisis deserves by extending the moratorium on eviction and foreclosures unilaterally. Federal law allows broad authority to the CDC to make regulations to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases. There is no reason why the White House should not immediately move ahead, even if there is a legal challenge to that order. The reality is this is a desperate situation for millions of families across the country, and we need action that meets that desperation. We also join the call for, where possible, states and localities to use their executive authority to issue moratoriums on eviction and foreclosure for their residents. “This Administration can and must act now to extend the moratorium in light of the upsurge in deadly infections so that every vulnerable American, no matter their zip code, will be protected from the threat of eviction.”

Pramila needs another Washingtonian in the Progressive Caucus-- and Jason Call is the one. Today he said, "Stunning that with a House majority the establishment could not find the courage of their supposed convictions. The Democrats constantly message that we have to stop the Republican agenda-- but my question is ‘What the hell is the agenda of the establishment Democrats?’ because it certainly doesn’t seem to helping the poor and working class. My opponent Rick Larsen wants to blame this on the GOP. This is where we need real accountability. This didn’t need to happen. We could have protected people. The Democrats are to blame here. Enough with the establishment gaslighting! #HousingIsAHumanRight"

Another future member of the Progressive Caucus, Florida challenger Christine Olivo, called it too: "Nancy Pelosi has proven that she does not care about our healthcare, she does not care about our student debt and she most certainly does not care about our living situation. We need to evict every single member of Congress that allowed this to happen! They might as well send the Republicans a congratulatory bouquet, because the Democrat’s just lost the midterms with this one.

Please consider clicking on the Blue America 2022 congressional thermometer above and contributing $5 or $10 to Jason's, Christine's and Shervin's campaigns. We've had more than enough Kyrsten Sinema-Democrats in Congress.