Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19, 34010-34018 [2021-13842]
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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 121 / Monday, June 28, 2021 / Notices
as a party to the Agreement; and
removes all authority to jointly negotiate
or procure terminal services in the
United States.
Proposed Effective Date: 6/22/2021.
Location: https://www2.fmc.gov/
FMC.Agreements.Web/Public/
AgreementHistory/1939.
Dated: June 23, 2021.
Rachel E. Dickon,
Secretary.
in concert, to acquire voting shares of
Lead Financial Group, Inc., and thereby
indirectly acquire voting shares of Lead
Bank, both of Kansas City, Missouri.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, June 23, 2021.
Michele Taylor Fennell,
Deputy Associate Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2021–13745 Filed 6–25–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
AND PREVENTION
[FR Doc. 2021–13751 Filed 6–25–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6730–02–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
ORDER UNDER SECTION 361 OF THE
PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT (42
U.S.C. 264) AND 42 CODE OF
FEDERAL REGULATIONS 70.2
Change in Bank Control Notices;
Acquisitions of Shares of a Bank or
Bank Holding Company
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The Order is extended through July
31, 2021 based on current and projected
epidemiological context of SARS-CoV–2
transmission throughout the United
States.
A copy of the Order is provided
below. A copy of the signed Order and
Declaration form can be found at:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/covid-eviction-declaration.html.
Temporary Halt in Residential
Evictions To Prevent the Further
Spread of COVID–19
The notificants listed below have
applied under the Change in Bank
Control Act (Act) (12 U.S.C. 1817(j)) and
§ 225.41 of the Board’s Regulation Y (12
CFR 225.41) to acquire shares of a bank
or bank holding company. The factors
that are considered in acting on the
applications are set forth in paragraph 7
of the Act (12 U.S.C. 1817(j)(7)).
The public portions of the
applications listed below, as well as
other related filings required by the
Board, if any, are available for
immediate inspection at the Federal
Reserve Bank(s) indicated below and at
the offices of the Board of Governors.
This information may also be obtained
on an expedited basis, upon request, by
contacting the appropriate Federal
Reserve Bank and from the Board’s
Freedom of Information Office at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/
request.htm. Interested persons may
express their views in writing on the
standards enumerated in paragraph 7 of
the Act.
Comments regarding each of these
applications must be received at the
Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of
the Board of Governors, Ann E.
Misback, Secretary of the Board, 20th
Street and Constitution Avenue, NW,
Washington DC 20551–0001, not later
than July 13, 2021.
A. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
City (Jeffrey Imgarten, Assistant Vice
President) 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas
City, Missouri 64198–0001:
1. The SRT 2015 LFG Trust, Sarah
Elizabeth Rowland Townsend, as cotrustee, both of Kansas City, Missouri;
MHR 2015 LFG Trust, Matthew Hill
Rowland, as co-trustee, both of Santa
Monica, California; with Sarah
Rowland, as co-trustee of both trusts,
Kansas City, Missouri; to join the
Rowland Family Group, a group acting
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Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS).
ACTION: Agency Order.
AGENCY:
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), located
within the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) announces the
extension of an Order under Section 361
of the Public Health Service Act to
temporarily halt residential evictions to
prevent the further spread of COVID–19.
DATES: This Order is effective July 1,
2021, through July 31, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Tiffany Brown, Deputy Chief of Staff,
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS
H21–10, Atlanta, GA 30329. Phone:
404–639–7000. Email: cdcregulations@
cdc.gov.
SUMMARY:
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
This Order further extends the
original temporary eviction moratorium
Order published on September 4, 2020,
as initially extended by the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,
and further extended by the Orders
published on January 29, 2021 and
March 31, 2021 set to expire on June 30,
2021. Because of COVID–19, household
crowding and transmission, and the
increased risk of individuals sheltering
in close quarters in congregate settings
such as homeless shelters, which may
be unable to provide adequate social
distancing as populations increase,
extending the temporary halt on
evictions is appropriate. This Order
further extends the prior Eviction
Moratoria for what is currently intended
to be a final 30 day-period, until July 31,
2021.
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TEMPORARY HALT IN RESIDENTIAL
EVICTIONS TO PREVENT THE
FURTHER SPREAD OF COVID–19
Summary
Subject to the limitations under
‘‘Applicability,’’ a landlord, owner of a
residential property, or other person 1
with a legal right to pursue eviction or
possessory action, shall not evict any
covered person from any residential
property in any jurisdiction to which
this Order applies during the effective
period of the Order.
Definitions
‘‘Available government assistance’’
means any governmental rental or
housing payment benefits available to
the individual or any household
member.
‘‘Available housing’’ means any
available, unoccupied residential
property, or other space for occupancy
in any seasonal or temporary housing,
that would not violate Federal, State, or
local occupancy standards and that
would not result in an overall increase
of housing cost to such individual.
‘‘Covered person’’ 2 means any tenant,
lessee, or resident of a residential
1 For purposes of this Order, ‘‘person’’ includes
corporations, companies, associations, firms,
partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies,
as well as individuals.
2 This definition is based on factors that are
known to contribute to evictions and thus increase
the need for individuals to move into close quarters
in new congregate or shared living arrangements or
experience homelessness. Individuals who suffer
job loss, have limited financial resources, are low
income, or have high out-of-pocket medical
expenses are more likely to be evicted for
nonpayment of rent than others not experiencing
these factors. See Desmond, M., Gershenson, C.,
Who gets evicted? Assessing individual,
neighborhood, and network factors, Soc Sci Res.
2017;62:362–377. doi:10.1016/
j.ssresearch.2016.08.017, (identifying job loss as a
possible predictor of eviction because renters who
lose their jobs experience not only a sudden loss of
income but also the loss of predictable future
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property who provides to their landlord,
the owner of the residential property, or
other person with a legal right to pursue
eviction or a possessory action,3 a
declaration under penalty of perjury
indicating that:
(1) The individual has used best
efforts to obtain all available
government assistance for rent or
housing;
(2) The individual either (i) earned no
more than $99,000 (or $198,000 if filing
jointly) in Calendar Year 2020, or
expects to earn no more than $99,000 in
annual income for Calendar Year 2021
(or no more than $198,000 if filing a
joint tax return),4 (ii) was not required
to report any income in 2020 to the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service, or (iii)
received an Economic Impact Payment
(stimulus check).5 6
(3) The individual is unable to pay the
full rent or make a full housing payment
due to substantial loss of household
income). According to one survey, over one quarter
(26%) of respondents also identified job loss as the
primary cause of homelessness. See 2019 San
Francisco Homeless Count & Survey
Comprehensive Report, Applied Survey Research,
at 22, https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/
2020/01/2019HIRDReport_SanFrancisco_
FinalDraft-1.pdf (last viewed Mar. 24, 2021).
3 As used throughout this Order, this would
include, without limitation, an agent or attorney
acting on behalf of the landlord or the owner of the
residential property.
4 According to one study, the national twobedroom housing wage in 2020 was $23.96 per hour
(approximately, $49,837 annually), meaning that an
hourly wage of $23.96 was needed to afford a
modest two-bedroom house without spending more
than 30% of one’s income on rent. The hourly wage
needed in Hawaii (the highest cost U.S. State for
rent) was $38.76 (approximately $80,621 annually).
See Out of Reach: How Much do you Need to Earn
to Afford a Modest Apartment in Your State?,
National Low Income Housing Coalition, https://
reports.nlihc.org/oor (last visited Mar. 23, 2021). As
further explained herein, because this Order is
intended to serve the critical public health goal of
preventing evicted individuals from potentially
contributing to the interstate spread of COVID–19
through movement into close quarters in new
congregate, shared housing settings, or through
homelessness, the higher income thresholds listed
here have been determined to better serve this goal.
5 ‘‘Stimulus check’’ includes payments made
pursuant to Section 2201 of the CARES Act, to
Section 9601 of the American Rescue Plan Act of
2021, or to any similar federally authorized
payments made to individual natural persons in
2020 and 2021. Eligibility for the 2020 or 2021
stimulus checks has been based on an income that
is equal to or lower than the income thresholds
described above and does not change or expand
who is a covered person under this Order since it
was entered into on September 4, 2020.
6 A person is likely to qualify for protection under
this Order if they receive the following benefits: (a)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF);
(b) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP); (c) Supplemental Security Income (SSI); or
(d) Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) to the
extent that income limits for these programs are less
than or equal to the income limits for this Order.
However, it is the individual’s responsibility to
verify that their income is within the income limits
described.
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income, loss of compensable hours of
work or wages, a lay-off, or
extraordinary 7 out-of-pocket medical
expenses;
(4) The individual is using best efforts
to make timely partial payments that are
as close to the full payment as the
individual’s circumstances may permit,
taking into account other
nondiscretionary expenses; and
(5) Eviction would likely render the
individual homeless—or force the
individual to move into and live in
close quarters in a new congregate or
shared living setting—because the
individual has no other available
housing options.
‘‘Evict’’ and ‘‘Eviction’’ means any
action by a landlord, owner of a
residential property, or other person
with a legal right to pursue eviction or
possessory action, to remove or cause
the removal of a covered person from a
residential property. This definition also
does not prohibit foreclosure on a home
mortgage.
‘‘Residential property’’ means any
property leased for residential purposes,
including any house, building, mobile
home or land in a mobile home park,8
or similar dwelling leased for residential
purposes, but shall not include any
hotel, motel, or other guest house rented
to a temporary guest or seasonal tenant
as defined under the laws of the State,
territorial, tribal, or local jurisdiction.
‘‘State’’ shall have the same definition
as under 42 CFR 70.1, meaning ‘‘any of
the 50 states, plus the District of
Columbia.’’
‘‘U.S. territory’’ shall have the same
definition as under 42 CFR 70.1,
meaning ‘‘any territory (also known as
possessions) of the United States,
including American Samoa, Guam, the
Northern Mariana Islands, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the
U.S. Virgin Islands.’’
Statement of intent
This Order shall be interpreted and
implemented in a manner as to achieve
the following objectives:
• Mitigating the spread of COVID–19
within crowded, congregate or shared
living settings, or through unsheltered
homelessness;
• Mitigating the further spread of
COVID–19 from one State or territory
into any other State or territory;
7 Extraordinary expenses are defined as those that
prevented you from paying some or all of your rent
or providing for other basic necessities like food
security. To qualify as an extraordinary medical
expense, the unreimbursed medical expense is one
that is likely to exceed 7.5% of one’s adjusted gross
income for the year.
8 Mobile home parks may also be referred to as
manufactured housing communities.
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• Mitigating the further spread of
COVID–19 by temporarily suspending
the eviction of covered persons from
residential property for nonpayment of
rent; and
• Supporting response efforts to
COVID–19 at the Federal, State, local,
territorial, and tribal levels.
Background
COVID–19 in the United States
Since January 2020, the respiratory
disease known as ‘‘COVID–19,’’ caused
by a novel coronavirus (SARS–COV–2),
has spread globally, including cases
reported in all fifty states within the
United States, plus the District of
Columbia and U.S. territories. As of
June 23, 2021, there have been over 179
million cases of COVID–19 globally,
resulting in over 3,800,000 deaths.9
Over 33,300,000 cases have been
identified in the United States, with
new cases reported daily, and over
599,000 deaths due to the disease.10
The virus that causes COVID–19
spreads very easily and sustainably
between people, particularly those who
are in close contact with one another
(within about 6 feet, but occasionally
over longer distances), mainly through
respiratory droplets produced when an
infected person coughs, sneezes, or
talks. Individuals without symptoms
can also spread the virus.11 Among
adults, the risk for severe illness from
COVID–19 increases with age, with
older adults at highest risk. Severe
illness means that persons with COVID–
19 may require hospitalization,
intensive care, or a ventilator to help
them breathe, and may be fatal. People
of any age with certain underlying
medical conditions (e.g. cancer, obesity,
serious heart conditions, or diabetes) are
at increased risk for severe illness from
COVID–19.12
COVID–19 vaccines are now widely
available in the United States, and all
9 COVID–19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems
Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins
University (JHU), Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
Resource Center, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/
map.html (last updated June 23, 2021).
10 COVID Data Tracker, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/
covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home (last updated
June 22, 2021).
11 Kimball A, Hatfield KM, Arons M, et al.
Asymptomatic and Presymptomatic SARS–CoV–2
Infections in Residents of a Long-Term Care Skilled
Nursing Facility—King County, Washington, March
2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:377–
381. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/
mmwr.mm6913e1.
12 Razzaghi H, Wang Y, Lu H, et al. Estimated
County-Level Prevalence of Selected Underlying
Medical Conditions Associated with Increased Risk
for Severe COVID–19 Illness—United States, 2018.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:945–950.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6929a1.
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people 12 years and older are
recommended to be vaccinated against
COVID–19. Three COVID–19 vaccines
are currently authorized by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
for emergency use: two mRNA vaccines
(Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna) and one
viral vector vaccine (Johnson & Johnson/
Janssen), each of which has been
determined to be safe and effective
against COVID–19. As of June 22, 2021,
over 150.3 million people in the United
States (more than 53% of the population
12 years or older) have been fully
immunized.13 However, as with other
transmissible diseases in densely
populated congregate settings, the risk
for SARS-CoV–2 infection is greater as
long as there is continued community
transmission of the virus. As
vaccination coverage increases, phasing
out prevention measures for fully
vaccinated people, ideally those
measures that are the most disruptive to
individuals and society, will be
increasingly feasible.14 However, the
vaccination program is still underway;
nearly half of the eligible population is
not yet fully vaccinated; and children
under age 12 are not yet eligible for
vaccines. And, although rare, fully
vaccinated people may become infected
with COVID–19.15 Moreover, CDC
recognizes the risk that even vaccinated
people face in densely populated
congregate settings. CDC therefore
continues to recommend mask use by
all people in areas like homeless
shelters and other congregate settings.16
New variants of SARS-CoV–2 have
emerged globally,17 several of which
have been identified as variants of
concern.18 Variants of concern,
including the variants Alpha, Beta,
Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, are those
13 COVID–19 Vaccinations in the United States,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://
covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
(last updated June 22, 2021).
14 Interim Public Health Recommendations for
Fully Vaccinated People. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/
coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinatedguidance.html (last updated May 28, 2021).
15 COVID–19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections
Reported to CDC—United States, January 1–April
30, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
2021;70:792–793. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/
mmwr.mm7021e3.
16 Interim Guidance for Homeless Service
Providers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID–19). Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/
coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/homelessshelters/plan-prepare-respond.html (last updated
June 8, 2021).
17 Abdool Karim SS, de Oliveira T. New SARSCoV–2 Variants—Clinical, Public Health, and
Vaccine Implications [published online ahead of
print, 2021 Mar 24]. N Engl J Med. 2021;10.1056/
NEJMc2100362. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2100362.
18 Id.
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for which there is evidence of an
increase in transmissibility, more severe
disease, reduction in neutralization by
antibodies generated during previous
infection or vaccination, reduced
effectiveness of treatments or vaccines,
or diagnostic detection failures.19 The
Alpha variant has become the
predominant SARS-CoV–2 strain
circulating in the United States;
however the proportion of Delta variant
cases has increased recently.20
Available evidence suggests the
currently authorized mRNA COVID–19
vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and
Moderna) provide significant protection
against known variant strains.21 Other
vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca,
show reduced efficacy against infection
with certain variants but may still
protect against severe disease. Given the
predominance of variant strains and the
continued emergence of new variants,
ongoing monitoring of vaccine
effectiveness is needed to identify
mutations that could render vaccines
most commonly used in the U.S. less
effective against more transmissible
variants like the Delta variant, which
now makes up almost 10 percent of U.S.
cases, up from 2.7 percent in May.22
In the context of a pandemic, eviction
moratoria—like quarantine, isolation,
and social distancing—can be an
effective public health measure utilized
to prevent the spread of communicable
disease. Eviction moratoria facilitate
self-isolation and self-quarantine by
people who become ill or who are at
risk of transmitting COVID–19.
Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)
Act (Pub. L. 116–136) to aid individuals
and businesses adversely affected by
COVID–19 in March 2020. Section 4024
of the CARES Act provided a 120-day
moratorium on eviction filings as well
as other protections for tenants in
certain rental properties with Federal
assistance or federally related financing.
These protections helped alleviate the
public health consequences of tenant
displacement during the COVID–19
pandemic. The CARES Act eviction
19 SARS-CoV–2 Variant Classifications and
Definitions, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/variants/variant-info.html#Concern (last
updated June 22, 2021).
20 Id.
21 Science Brief: COVID–19 Vaccines and
Vaccination, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/science/science-briefs/fully-vaccinatedpeople.html (last updated May 27, 2021).
22 According to data with an end collection date
of June 5, 2021. Variant Proportions, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, https://
covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variantproportions (last updated June 22, 2021).
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moratorium expired on July 24, 2020.
The protections in the CARES Act
supplemented temporary eviction
moratoria and rent freezes implemented
by governors and other local officials
using emergency powers.
Researchers estimated that this
temporary Federal moratorium provided
relief to a material portion of the
nation’s roughly 43 million renters.23
The CARES act also provided funding
streams for emergency rental assistance;
surveys estimate that this assistance
became available to the public through
rental assistance programs by July 2020.
The Federal moratorium provided by
the CARES Act, however, did not reach
all renters. Many renters who fell
outside the scope of the Federal
moratorium were instead protected
under State and local moratoria. In early
March, 2021, the Census Household
Pulse Survey estimated that 6.4 million
households were behind on rent, and
just under half fear imminent eviction.24
In 2016, research showed that there
were 3.6 million eviction filings and 1.5
million eviction judgments over the
span of a whole year,25 meaning that a
wave of evictions on the scale feared by
households would be unprecedented in
modern times. A large portion of those
who are evicted may move into close
quarters in shared housing or, as
discussed below, become homeless,
thus becoming at higher risk of COVID–
19.
On September 4, 2020, the CDC
Director issued an Order temporarily
halting evictions in the United States for
the reasons described therein. That
Order was set to expire on December 31,
2020, subject to further extension,
modification, or rescission. Section 502
of Title V, Division N of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
extended the Order until January 31,
2021, and approved the Order as an
exercise of the CDC’s authority under
Section 361 of the Public Health Service
Act (42 U.S.C. 264). With the extension
of the Order, Congress also provided
$25 billion for emergency rental
23 Laurie Goodman, Karan Kaul, and Michael
Neal. The CARES Act Eviction Moratorium Covers
All Federally Financed Rentals—That’s One in Four
US Rental Units. The Urban Institute. April 2, 2020.
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/cares-acteviction-moratorium-covers-all-federally-financedrentals-thats-one-four-us-rental-units.
24 Census Household Pulse Survey: Key Phase 3
Housing Payment Findings. Office of Policy
Development and Research, HUDUser (April 26,
2021). https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/
pdr-edge-trending-042621.html.
25 Ashley Gromis. Eviction: Intersection of
Poverty, Inequality, and Housing. Eviction Lab,
Princeton University (May 2019). https://
www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/
uploads/sites/22/2019/05/GROMIS_Ashley_
Paper.pdf.
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assistance for the payment of rent and
rental arrears. Congress later provided
an additional $21.55 billion in
emergency rental assistance when it
passed the American Rescue Plan.
On January 29, 2021, following an
assessment of the ongoing pandemic,
the CDC Director renewed the Order
until March 31, 2021. On March 28,
2021, the CDC Director modified and
extended the Order until June 30, 2021.
This Order further extends the prior
Eviction Moratoria for what is currently
intended to be a final 30-day period,
until July 31, 2021, for the reasons
described herein. Although this Order is
subject to revision based on the
changing public health landscape,
absent an unexpected change in the
trajectory of the pandemic, CDC does
not plan to extend the Order further. To
the extent any provision of this Order
conflicts with prior Orders, this Order is
controlling.
Researchers estimate that, in 2020,
Federal, State, and local eviction
moratoria led to over one million fewer
evictions than the previous year.26
Additional research shows that, despite
the CDC eviction moratorium leading to
an estimated 50% decrease in eviction
filings compared to the historical
average, there have still been over
100,000 eviction filings since September
just within approximately 35 cities and
states with more readily available data,
suggesting high demand and likelihood
of mass evictions.27
Eviction, Crowding, and Interstate
Transmission of Covid–19
By February 10, 2021, the U.S.
Department of the Treasury had paid all
of the $25 billion made available by the
Consolidated Appropriations Act of
2021 to states, territories, localities and
tribes for the purpose of providing
emergency rental assistance to eligible
households in their jurisdictions.
Additionally, as directed in the Act,
Treasury has also made available 40
percent—more than $8.6 billion—of the
additional funding to states, territories
and localities for emergency rental
assistance provided in the American
Rescue Plan. Based on data collected
from grantees, Treasury reports that over
630,000 households had already applied
for emergency rental assistance by the
end of March—when many State and
local programs had not yet opened for
applications. Though there are
26 Hepburn P, Louis R, Fish J, et al. U.S. Eviction
Filing Patterns in 2020. Socius. January 2021.
doi:10.1177/23780231211009983.
27 Peter Hepburn and Renee Louis. Preliminary
Analysis: Six Months of the CDC Eviction
Moratorium (March 8, 2021). https://
evictionlab.org/six-months-cdc/.
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indications that emergency rental
assistance has started to reach
increasing numbers of families over
recent months, State and local agencies
likely have hundreds of thousands of
applications for assistance that currently
remain outstanding as programs
accelerate their activity. According to
Treasury, more households—over
96,000—were served in April than in
the entire first quarter. Assistance
accelerated in May, with over a fifty
percent increase in households served
compared to the previous month. The
level of assistance provided to low
income households is expected to
continue increasing because some states
started accepting rental assistance
applications in late May, including as
late as June 1, and now all states are
operating programs. Based on analysis
of grantee reporting, Treasury believes
that State and local emergency rental
assistance programs will collectively
deploy more rental assistance in July
than in any previous month. In addition
to Emergency Rental Assistance, there
are coordinated efforts across Federal
agencies to—in partnership with states
and localities—promote eviction
prevention strategies.
An unprecedented and avoidable
surge of evictions is likely to occur if the
national moratorium were to conclude
on June 30. Recent data from the U.S.
Census Household Pulse Survey
demonstrates that an increased
percentage of households behind on
rent believe that an eviction is likely in
the next two months.28 A surge in
evictions could lead to the immediate
and significant movement of large
numbers of persons from lower density
to higher density housing. This
potential for a mass movement of
persons would occur at precisely the
same time that our nation is actively
engaged in a widespread vaccination
effort. This vaccination effort has a
slower rate of penetration among the
populations most likely to experience
eviction, and such a mass movement
would place increased stress on the
homeless service system.29 In
combination with the continued
underlying COVID–19 spread, and the
overlapping factors described above,
this would create considerable risk for
rapid transmission of COVID–19 in high
risk settings. Allowing additional time
28 Household Pulse Survey Interactive Tool. U.S.
Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/data-tools/
demo/hhp/#/ (last visited June 23, 2021).
29 Barry V, Dasgupta S, Weller DL, et al. Patterns
in COVID–19 Vaccination Coverage, by Social
Vulnerability and Urbanicity—United States,
December 14, 2020–May 1, 2021. MMWR Morb
Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:818–824. DOI: https://
dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7022e1.
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for rent relief to reach renters and to
further increase vaccination rates
through the end of July 2021 could
decrease the numbers of likely evictions
and avert the potential of COVID–19
resurgence among people who
experience eviction, their communities,
and other regions of the country affected
by the resulting transmission.
Evicted renters must move, which
leads to multiple outcomes that increase
the risk of COVID–19 spread.
Specifically, many evicted renters move
into close quarters in shared housing or
other congregate settings. These moves
may require crossing State borders.
According to the Census Bureau
American Housing Survey, 32% of
renters reported that they would move
in with friends or family members upon
eviction, which would introduce new
household members and potentially
increase household crowding. Studies
show that COVID–19 transmission
occurs readily within households. The
secondary attack rate in households has
been estimated to be 17%, and
household contacts are estimated to be
6 times more likely to become infected
by an index case of COVID–19 than
other close contacts.30 A study of
pregnant women in New York City
showed that women in large households
(greater number of residents per
household) were three times as likely to
test positive for SARS-CoV–2 than those
in smaller households, and those in
neighborhoods with greater household
crowding (≥1 resident per room) were
twice as likely to test positive.31
Throughout the United States, counties
with the highest proportion of crowded
households have experienced COVID–
19 mortality rates 2.6 times those of
counties with the lowest proportion of
crowded households.
Shared housing is not limited to
friends and family. It includes a broad
range of settings, including transitional
housing and domestic violence and
abuse shelters. Special considerations
exist for such housing because of the
challenges of maintaining social
distance. Residents often gather closely
or use shared equipment, such as
kitchen appliances, laundry facilities,
stairwells, and elevators. Residents may
have unique needs, such as disabilities,
chronic health conditions, cognitive
30 Qin-Long Jing, et al. Household secondary
attack rate of COVID–19 and associated
determinants in Guangzhou, China: a retrospective
cohort study. The Lancet.2020 June 17; vol. 20.10;
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)304710.
31 Ukachi N. Emeruwa, et al. Associations
Between Built Environment, Neighborhood
Socioeconomic Status, and SARS-CoV–2 Infection
Among Pregnant Women in New York City. JAMA.
2020;324(4):390–392. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.11370.
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decline, or limited access to technology,
and thus may find it more difficult to
take actions to protect themselves from
COVID–19. CDC recommends that
shelters provide new residents with a
clean mask, keep them isolated from
others, screen for symptoms at entry, or
arrange for medical evaluations as
needed depending on symptoms.
Accordingly, an influx of new residents
at facilities that offer support services
could potentially overwhelm staff and,
if recommendations are not followed,
lead to exposures.
Modeling studies and preliminary
observational data from the pre-vaccine
phase of the COVID–19 pandemic
comparing incidence between states that
implemented and lifted eviction
moratoria indicate that evictions
substantially contribute to COVID–19
transmission. In mathematical models
where eviction led exclusively to
sharing housing with friends or family,
lifting eviction moratoria led to a 30%
increased risk of contracting COVID–19
among people who were evicted and
those with whom they shared housing
after eviction.32 Compared to a scenario
where no evictions occurred, the models
also predicted a 4%–40% increased risk
of infection, even for those who did not
share housing, as a result of increased
overall transmission. The authors
estimated that anywhere from 1,000 to
100,000 excess cases per million
population could be attributable to
evictions depending on the eviction and
infection rates.
An analysis of observational data from
State-based eviction moratoria in 43
states and the District of Columbia
showed significant increases in COVID–
19 incidence and mortality
approximately 2–3 months after eviction
moratoria were lifted (pre-peer review).
Specifically, the authors compared the
COVID–19 incidence and mortality rates
in states that lifted their moratoria with
the rates in states that maintained their
moratoria. In these models, the authors
accounted for time-varying indicators of
each State’s test count as well as major
public-health interventions including
lifting stay-at-home orders, school
closures, and mask mandates. After
adjusting for these other changes, they
found that the incidence of COVID–19
in states that lifted their moratoria was
1.6 times that of states that did not at
10 weeks post-lifting (95% CI 1.0, 2.3),
32 Nande A, Sheen J, Walters EL, Klein B,
Chinazzi M, Gheorghe AH, Adlam B, Shinnick J,
Tejeda MF, Scarpino SV, Vespignani A, Greenlee
AJ, Schneider D, Levy MZ, Hill AL. The effect of
eviction moratoria on the transmission of SARSCoV–2. Nat Commun. 2021 Apr 15;12(1):2274. doi:
10.1038/s41467–021–22521–5. PMID: 33859196;
PMCID: PMC8050248.
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a ratio that grew to 2.1 at ≥16 weeks (CI
1.1, 3.9). Similarly, they found that
mortality in states that lifted their
moratoria was 1.6 times that of states
that did not at 7 weeks post-lifting (CI
1.2, 2.3), a ratio that grew to 5.4 at ≥16
weeks (CI 3.1, 9.3). The authors
estimated that, nationally, over 433,000
cases of COVID–19 and over 10,000
deaths could be attributed to lifting
State moratoria.33
Although data are limited, available
evidence suggests evictions lead to
interstate spread of COVID–19 in two
ways. First, an eviction may lead the
evicted members of a household to
move across State lines. Of the 35
million people in America who move
each year, 15% move to a new State.
Second, even if a particular eviction,
standing alone, would not always result
in interstate displacement, the mass
evictions that would occur in the
absence of this Order would inevitably
increase the interstate spread of COVID–
19. This Order cannot effectively
mitigate interstate transmission of
COVID–19 without covering intrastate
evictions (evictions occurring within the
boundaries of a State or territory), as the
level of spread of SARS-CoV–2 resulting
from these evictions can lead to SARSCoV–2 transmission across State
borders.
Moreover, intrastate spread facilitates
interstate spread in the context of
communicable disease spread, given the
nature of infectious disease. In the
aggregate, the mass-scale evictions that
will likely occur in the absence of this
Order will inevitably increase interstate
spread of COVID–19.
Eviction, Homelessness, and Covid–19
Transmission
Evicted individuals without access to
support or other assistance options may
become homeless, including older
adults or those with underlying medical
conditions, who are more at risk for
severe illness from COVID–19 than the
general population. In Seattle-King
County, 5–15% of people experiencing
homelessness between 2018 and 2020
cited eviction as the primary reason for
becoming homeless.34 Additionally,
some individuals and families who are
evicted may originally stay with family
or friends, but subsequently seek
33 Leifheit, Kathryn M. and Linton, Sabriya L. and
Raifman, Julia and Schwartz, Gabriel and Benfer,
Emily and Zimmerman, Frederick J and Pollack,
Craig, Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and COVID–
19 Incidence and Mortality (November 30, 2020).
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/
abstract=3739576 or https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/
ssrn.3739576.
34 Count Us In 2020. KCRHA (July 2020). https://
kcrha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Count-Us_
In-2020-Final_7.29.2020.pdf.
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homeless services. Data collection by an
emergency shelter in Columbus, Ohio,
showed that 35.4% of families and
11.4% of single adults reported an
eviction as the primary or secondary
reason for their seeking shelter.35
Extensive outbreaks of COVID–19
have been identified in homeless
shelters. In Seattle, Washington, a
network of three related homeless
shelters experienced an outbreak that
led to 43 cases among residents and staff
members. In Boston, Massachusetts,
universal COVID–19 testing at a single
shelter revealed 147 cases, representing
36% of shelter residents. COVID–19
testing in a single shelter in San
Francisco led to the identification of 101
cases (67% of those tested). Data from
557 universal diagnostic testing events
at homeless shelters in 21 states show
an average of 6% positivity among
shelter clients. Data comparing the
incidence or severity of COVID–19
among people experiencing
homelessness directly to the general
population are limited. However, during
the 15-day period of the outbreak in
Boston, MA, researchers estimated a
cumulative incidence of 46.3 cases of
COVID–19 per 1000 persons
experiencing homelessness, as
compared to 1.9 cases per 1000 among
Massachusetts adults (pre-print).
CDC guidance recommends increasing
physical distance between beds in
homeless shelters, which is likely to
decrease capacity, while community
transmission of COVID–19 is occurring.
These guidelines are similar to other
guidance issued for other congregate
settings such as prisons and jails. To
adhere to this guidance, shelters have
limited the number of people served
throughout the United States. In many
places, considerably fewer beds are
available to individuals who become
homeless. Shelters that do not adhere to
the guidance, and operate at ordinary or
increased occupancy, are at greater risk
for the types of outbreaks described
above. The challenge of mitigating
disease transmission in homeless
shelters has been compounded because
some organizations have chosen to stop
or limit volunteer access and
participation.
Persons at Higher Risk of Eviction May
Also be at Higher Risk of Being
Unvaccinated
At this time, communities with high
rates of eviction may currently have
lower coverage of COVID–19
vaccination—a focus for current
35 Chester Hartman and David Robinson.
‘‘Evictions: The Hidden Housing Problem’’ in
Housing Policy Debate. 2003.
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vaccination campaigns. In the spring of
2021, counties with high social
vulnerability (i.e., social and structural
factors associated with adverse health
outcome inclusive of socioeconomic
indicators related to risk of eviction)
were shown to have lower levels of
COVID–19 vaccination.36
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CDC Eviction Moratorium
The Department of the Treasury
continues to distribute emergency rental
assistance funds that may help mitigate
spikes in COVID–19 transmission due to
increases in evictions. These funds are
expected to make a meaningful
difference for hundreds of thousands of
people who are expected to receive the
rental assistance in the 30-day horizon
of this Order, alongside other Federal
and State efforts to prevent evictions.37
On September 4, 2020, the CDC
Director issued an Order temporarily
halting evictions in the United States for
the reasons described therein. That
Order was set to expire on December 31,
2020, subject to further extension,
modification, or rescission. Section 502
of Title V, Division N of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
extended the Order until January 31,
2021. With the extension of the Order,
Congress also provided $25 billion for
emergency rental assistance for the
payment of rent and rental arrears.
Congress later provided an additional
$21.55 billion in emergency rental
assistance when it passed the American
Rescue Plan.
On January 29, 2021, following an
assessment of the ongoing pandemic,
the CDC Director renewed the Order
until March 31, 2021. On March 28, the
CDC Director renewed the Order until
June 30, 2021. This Order further
extends the prior Eviction Moratorium
until July 31, 2021, for the reasons
described herein, while the Department
of the Treasury disburses the remaining
ERA funds to State and local
jurisdictions, and those grantees
continue to accelerate efforts to deploy
rental assistance on behalf of tenants. To
the extent any provision of this Order
conflicts with prior Orders, this Order is
controlling.
36 Barry V, Dasgupta S, Weller DL, Kriss JL,
Cadwell BL, Rose C, Pingali C, Musial T, Sharpe JD,
Flores SA, Greenlund KJ, Patel A, Stewart A,
Qualters JR, Harris L, Barbour KE, Black CL.
Patterns in COVID–19 Vaccination Coverage, by
Social Vulnerability and Urbanicity—United States,
December 14, 2020–May 1, 2021. MMWR Morb
Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021 Jun 4;70(22):818–824. doi:
10.15585/mmwr.mm7022e1. PMID: 34081685;
PMCID: PMC8174677.
37 Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance
Programs in 2021: Analysis of a National Survey.
National Low Income Housing Coalition. June 2021.
https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/HIP_NLIHC_
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Applicability
This Order does not apply in any
State, local, territorial, or tribal area
with a moratorium on residential
evictions that provides the same or
greater level of public-health protection
than the requirements listed in this
Order or to the extent its application is
prohibited by Federal court order. In
accordance with 42 U.S.C. 264(e), this
Order does not preclude State, local,
territorial, and tribal authorities from
imposing additional requirements that
provide greater public-health protection
and are more restrictive than the
requirements in this Order.
This Order is a temporary eviction
moratorium to prevent the further
spread of COVID–19. This Order does
not relieve any individual of any
obligation to pay rent, make a housing
payment, or comply with any other
obligation that the individual may have
under a tenancy, lease, or similar
contract. Nothing in this Order
precludes the charging or collecting of
fees, penalties, or interest as a result of
the failure to pay rent or other housing
payment on a timely basis, under the
terms of any applicable contract.
Nothing in this Order precludes
evictions based on a tenant, lessee, or
resident: (1) Engaging in criminal
activity while on the premises; (2)
threatening the health or safety of other
residents; 38 (3) damaging or posing an
immediate and significant risk of
damage to property; (4) violating any
applicable building code, health
ordinance, or similar regulation relating
to health and safety; or (5) violating any
other contractual obligation, other than
the timely payment of rent or similar
housing-related payment (including
non-payment or late payment of fees,
penalties, or interest).
Any evictions for nonpayment of rent
initiated prior to September 4, 2020, but
not yet completed, are subject to this
Order. Any tenant, lessee, or resident of
a residential property who qualifies as
a ‘‘Covered Person’’ and is still present
in a rental unit is entitled to protections
under this Order. Any eviction that was
completed prior to September 4, 2020,
is not subject to this Order.
Under this Order, covered persons
may be evicted for engaging in criminal
38 Individuals who might have COVID–19 are
advised to stay home except to get medical care.
Accordingly, individuals who might have COVID–
19 and take reasonable precautions to not spread
the disease should not be evicted on the ground that
they may pose a health or safety threat to other
residents. See What to Do if You are Sick, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, https://
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-aresick/steps-when-sick.html (last updated Mar. 17,
2021).
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activity while on the premises. But
covered persons may not be evicted on
the sole basis that they are alleged to
have committed the crime of trespass (or
similar State-law offense) where the
underlying activity is a covered person
remaining in a residential property for
nonpayment of rent. Permitting such
evictions would result in substantially
more evictions overall, thus increasing
the risk of disease transmission as
otherwise covered persons move into
congregate settings or experience
homelessness. This result would be
contrary to the stated objectives of this
Order, and therefore would diminish
their effectiveness. Moreover, to the
extent such criminal trespass laws are
invoked to establish criminal activity
solely based on a tenant, lessee, or
resident of a residential property
remaining in a residential property
despite the nonpayment of rent, such
invocation conflicts with this Order and
is preempted pursuant to 42 U.S.C.
264(e).
Individuals who are confirmed to
have, who have been exposed to, or who
might have COVID–19 and take
reasonable precautions to not spread the
disease may not be evicted on grounds
that they may pose a health or safety
threat to other residents.
The Order is extended through July
31, 2021, based on the current and
projected epidemiological context of
SARS–CoV–2 transmission throughout
the United States. This 30-day
extension, intended to be the final
iteration, will allow the assessment of
natural changes to COVID–19 incidence,
the influences of new variants,
additional distribution of emergency
rental assistance funds, and the
expansion of COVID–19 vaccine uptake.
Declaration Forms
To qualify for the protections of this
Order, a tenant, lessee, or resident of a
residential property must provide a
completed and signed copy of a
declaration with the elements listed in
the definition of ‘‘Covered person’’ to
their landlord, owner of the residential
property where they live, or other
person who has a right to have them
evicted or removed from where they
live. To assist tenants and landlords, the
CDC created a standardized declaration
form that can be downloaded here:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf.
Tenants, lessees, and residents of
residential property are not obligated to
use the CDC form. Any written
document that an eligible tenant, lessee,
or residents of residential property
presents to their landlord will comply
with this Order, as long as it contains
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Based on the convergence of these
issues, I have determined that extending
the temporary halt on evictions is
appropriate.
Therefore, under 42 CFR 70.2, subject
to the limitations under the
‘‘Applicability’’ section, the September
4, 2020 Order, as extended and
modified by the January 29, 2021 and
March 28, 2021 Orders, is hereby
extended through July 31, 2021.
Accordingly, a landlord, owner of a
residential property, or other person
with a legal right to pursue eviction or
possessory action shall not evict any
covered person from any residential
property in any State or U.S. territory
where there are documented cases of
COVID–19 and the State or U.S. territory
has provided a level of public-health
protections below the requirements
listed in this Order.
This Order is not a rule within the
meaning of the Administrative
Procedure Act (APA) but rather an
emergency action taken under the
existing authority of 42 CFR 70.2. The
purpose of § 70.2, which was
promulgated through notice-andcomment rulemaking, is to enable CDC
to take swift steps to prevent contagion
without having to seek a second round
of public comments and without a delay
in effective date.40
Determination
For the reasons described herein, I am
extending the September 4, 2020 Order,
as extended by section 502 of Title V,
Division N of the Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2021 and further
extended and modified by the January
29, 2021 and March 28, 2021 Orders. I
have determined based on the
information below that extending the
temporary halt in evictions in this Order
constitutes a reasonably necessary
measure under 42 CFR 70.2 to prevent
the further spread of COVID–19
throughout the United States. I have
further determined that measures by
states, localities, or territories that do
not meet or exceed these minimum
protections are insufficient to prevent
the interstate spread of COVID–19.
State and local jurisdictions continue
to distribute emergency rental assistance
funds, provided by the Department of
Treasury, that will help avert a spate of
evictions and thus mitigate
corresponding spikes in COVID–19
transmission. Although trends have
improved dramatically since January
2021, there continues to be ongoing
transmission of approximately 10,000
cases per day in the United States.39
Congress has appropriated
approximately $46 billion—of which
almost three-quarters is currently
available to State and local grantees—to
help pay rent and rental arrears for
tenants who may otherwise be at high
risk of eviction. According to estimates
based on the U.S. Census Household
Pulse Survey, approximately 6.4 million
renter households are behind on their
rent as of March 29, 2021. The
successful delivery of those funds by
states and localities should greatly
reduce the incidence of eviction that
would occur in the absence of that
support. However, many states and
localities are still ramping up the
collection and processing of
applications and the delivery of
assistance and putting in place other
eviction prevention strategies. It was
only in the beginning of June that all
State-run emergency rental assistance
programs had opened for applications. If
the moratorium expires on June 30, a
wave of evictions, on the order of
hundreds of thousands, could occur this
summer and early fall, exacerbating the
spread of COVID–19 among the
significant percentage of the population
that remains unvaccinated. In
appropriating these emergency rental
assistance funds, Congress intended that
the funding would work in concert with
the eviction moratorium, providing time
for rental assistance to reach eligible
tenants and landlords to sustainably
reduce the threat of an eviction wave
after an eviction moratorium was no
longer in effect. While the pace of
assistance is continuing to increase,
without additional time for states and
localities to deliver this needed relief
and engage in other efforts to prevent
evictions, a surge of evictions would
occur upon the conclusion of the
national moratorium. A surge in
evictions would lead to immediate
movement, crowding, and increased
stress on the homeless service system.
In combination with ongoing COVID–19
transmission, and the overlapping
factors described above, this would
create considerable risk for the rapid
transmission of COVID–19 in high-risk
settings. Allowing additional time for
rent relief to reach renters—alongside
other Federal and State actions to
prevent evictions—by an extension
through the month of July 2021 can
decrease the numbers of likely evictions
and avert the potential of COVID–19
resurgence among people who
experience eviction, their communities,
and other regions of the country affected
by the resulting transmission.
39 COVID Data Tracker, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/
covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendscases (last
updated June 22, 2021).
40 Chambless Enters., LLC v. Redfield, No. 20–
1455, 2020 WL 7588849 (W.D. La. 2020).
the required elements of ‘‘Covered
person’’ as described in this Order. In
addition, tenants, lessees, and residents
of residential property are allowed to
declare in writing that they meet the
elements of covered person in other
languages.
All declarations, regardless of form
used, must be signed, and must include
a statement that the tenant, lessee, or
resident of a residential property
understands that they could be liable for
perjury for any false or misleading
statements or omissions in the
declaration. This Order does not
preclude a landlord challenging the
truthfulness of a tenant’s, lessee’s, or
resident’s declaration in court, as
permitted under State or local law.
In certain circumstances, such as
individuals filing a joint tax return, it
may be appropriate for one member of
the residence to provide an executed
declaration on behalf of the other adult
residents party to the lease, rental
agreement, or housing contract. The
declaration may be signed and
transmitted either electronically or by
hard copy.
As long as the information in a
previously signed declaration submitted
under a previous order remains submit
a new declaration under this Order.
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Good Cause
In the event this Order qualifies as a
rule under the APA, there is good cause
to dispense with prior public notice and
comment and a delay in effective date.
See 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), (d)(3). Good
cause exists, in sum, because the public
health emergency caused by the
COVID–19 pandemic and the
unpredictability of the trajectory of the
pandemic make it impracticable and
contrary to the public health, and by
extension the public interest, to delay
the issuance and effective date of this
Order.
In the September 4, 2020 Order, the
previous CDC Director determined that
good cause existed because the public
health emergency caused by COVID–19
made it impracticable and contrary to
the public health, and by extension the
public interest, to delay the issuance
and effective date of the Order. The
previous Director also found that a
delay in the effective date of the Order
would permit the occurrence of
evictions—potentially on a mass scale—
that would have potentially significant
consequences. For these reasons, the
previous Director concluded that the
delay in the effective date of the Order
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would defeat the purpose of the Order
and endanger the public health and,
therefore, determined that immediate
action was necessary. As a result, the
previous Director issued the Order
without prior notice and comment and
without a delay in the effective date. I
made similar findings in the January 29,
2021 and March 28, 2021 Orders, and
similar findings, as described herein,
continue to exist.
The rapidly changing nature of the
pandemic requires not only that CDC act
swiftly, but also deftly to ensure that its
actions are commensurate with the
threat. This necessarily involves
assessing evolving conditions that
inform CDC’s determinations. And
although the pandemic is showing
positive trends, the fundamental public
health threat that existed on September
4, 2020, January 29, 2021, and March
28, 2021—the risk of large numbers of
residential evictions contributing to the
spread of COVID–19 throughout the
United States—continues to exist.
Without this Order, there is every
reason to expect that evictions will
increase. It is imperative that public
health authorities act quickly to mitigate
such an increase of evictions, which
could increase the likelihood of new
spikes in SARS–CoV–2 transmission
even as COVID–19 morbidity and
mortality may be waning. Such mass
evictions and the attendant publichealth consequences could unravel
positive trends, and would be very
difficult to reverse.
For all of these reasons, I hereby
conclude that immediate action is again
necessary and that notice-and-comment
rulemaking and a delay in effective date
would be impracticable and contrary to
the public interest.
Miscellaneous
Similarly, if this Order qualifies as a
rule under the APA, the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs
(OIRA) has determined that it would be
an economically significant regulatory
action pursuant to Executive Order
12866 and a major rule under Subtitle
E of the Small Business Regulatory
Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (the
Congressional Review Act or CRA), 5
U.S.C. 804(2). Thus, this action has been
reviewed by OIRA. CDC has determined
that for the same reasons given above,
there would be good cause under the
CRA to make the requirements herein
effective immediately. 5 U.S.C. 808(2).
If any provision of this Order, or the
application of any provision to any
persons, entities, or circumstances, shall
be held invalid, the remainder of the
provisions, or the application of such
provisions to any persons, entities, or
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17:39 Jun 25, 2021
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circumstances other than those to which
it is held invalid, shall remain valid and
in effect.
This Order shall be enforced by
Federal authorities and cooperating
State and local authorities through the
provisions of 18 U.S.C. 3559, 3571; 42
U.S.C. 243, 268, 271; and 42 CFR 70.18.
However, this Order has no effect on the
contractual obligations of renters to pay
rent and shall not preclude charging or
collecting fees, penalties, or interest as
a result of the failure to pay rent or other
housing payment on a timely basis,
under the terms of any applicable
contract.
Criminal Penalties
Under 18 U.S.C. 3559, 3571; 42 U.S.C.
271; and 42 CFR 70.18, a person
violating this Order may be subject to a
fine of no more than $100,000 or one
year in jail, or both, if the violation does
not result in a death, or a fine of no
more than $250,000 or one year in jail,
or both if the violation results in a
death, or as otherwise provided by law.
An organization violating this Order
may be subject to a fine of no more than
$200,000 per event if the violation does
not result in a death or $500,000 per
event if the violation results in a death
or as otherwise provided by law. The
U.S. Department of Justice may initiate
criminal proceedings as appropriate
seeking imposition of these criminal
penalties.
Notice To Cooperating State and Local
Officials
Under 42 U.S.C. 243, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services is authorized to cooperate with
and aid State and local authorities in the
enforcement of their quarantine and
other health regulations and to accept
State and local assistance in the
enforcement of Federal quarantine rules
and regulations, including in the
enforcement of this Order.
Notice of Available Federal Resources
While this Order to prevent eviction
is effectuated to protect the public
health, the states and units of local
government are reminded that the
Federal Government has deployed
unprecedented resources to address the
pandemic, including housing assistance.
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), the
Department of Agriculture, and the
Department of the Treasury have
informed CDC that unprecedented
emergency resources have been
appropriated through various Federal
agencies that assist renters and
landlords during the pandemic,
including $46.55 billion to the Treasury
PO 00000
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34017
through the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2021 and the
American Rescue Plan (ARP).
Furthermore, in 2020 44 states and 310
local jurisdictions allocated about $3.9
billion toward emergency rental
assistance, largely from funds
appropriated to HUD from the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security (CARES).41 These three rounds
of Federal appropriations also provided
substantial resources for homeless
services, homeowner assistance, and
supplemental stimulus and
unemployment benefits that low-income
renters used to pay rent.
Visit https://home.treasury.gov/
policy-issues/cares/state-and-localgovernments for more information about
the Coronavirus Relief Fund and https://
home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/
emergency-rental-assistance-program
for more information about the
Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
Relevant agencies have informed CDC
that forbearance policies for mortgages
backed by the Federal Government
provide many landlords, especially
smaller landlords, with temporary relief
as new emergency rental assistance
programs are deployed. Treasury, HUD,
and USDA grantees and partners play a
critical role in prioritizing efforts to
support this goal. All communities
should assess what resources have
already been allocated to prevent
evictions and homelessness through
temporary rental assistance and
homelessness prevention, particularly to
the most vulnerable households.
Treasury, HUD, and USDA stand at the
ready to support American communities
in taking these steps to reduce the
spread of COVID–19 and maintain
economic prosperity.
For program support, including
technical assistance, please visit
www.hudexchange.info/programsupport. For further information on
HUD resources, tools, and guidance
available to respond to the COVID–19
pandemic, State and local officials are
directed to visit https://www.hud.gov/
coronavirus. These tools include
toolkits for Public Housing Authorities
and Housing Choice Voucher landlords
related to housing stability and eviction
prevention, as well as similar guidance
for owners and renters in HUD-assisted
multifamily properties. Furthermore,
tenants can visit consumerfinance.gov/
housing for up-to-date information on
rent relief options, protections, and key
deadlines.
41 Vincent Reina et al, COVID–19 Emergency
Rental Assistance: Analysis of a National Survey of
Programs, Research Brief, https://nlihc.org/sites/
default/files/HIP_NLIHC_Furman_Brief_FINAL.pdf
(last visited Mar. 26, 2021).
E:\FR\FM\28JNN1.SGM
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34018
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 121 / Monday, June 28, 2021 / Notices
Effective Date
This Order is effective on July 1, 2021,
and will remain in effect through July
31, 2021, subject to revision based on
the changing public health landscape.
Authority
The authority for this Order is Section
361 of the Public Health Service Act (42
U.S.C. 264) and 42 CFR 70.2.
Dated: June 24, 2021.
Sherri Berger,
Chief of Staff, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
requested to the State Plan and the
Master List. No changes are proposed to
the ACSI.
DATES: Comments due within 30 days of
publication. OMB must make a decision
about the collection of information
between 30 and 60 days after
publication of this document in the
Federal Register. Therefore, a comment
is best assured of having its full effect
if OMB receives it within 30 days of
publication.
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
PRAMain. Find this particular
information collection by selecting
‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open
for Public Comments’’ or by using the
search function.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Description: Section 676 of the
Community Services Block Grant
(CSBG) Act requires states, including
the District of Columbia and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and U.S.
territories applying for CSBG funds to
submit an application and plan (CSBG
State Plan). The CSBG State Plan must
meet statutory requirements prior to
CSBG grantees (states and territories)
being funded with CSBG funds.
Grantees have the option to submit a
detailed plan annually or biannually.
Grantees that submit a biannual plan
must provide an abbreviated plan the
following year if substantial changes to
the initial plan will occur.
ADDRESSES:
[FR Doc. 2021–13842 Filed 6–24–21; 2:00 pm]
BILLING CODE 4163–18–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and
Families
Submission for OMB Review;
Community Services Block Grant
(CSBG) Model State Plan Applications
(OMB No. 0970–0382)
Office of Community Services,
Administration for Children and
Families, HHS.
ACTION: Request for public comment.
AGENCY:
The Office of Community
Services (OCS) requests a three-year
extension of the forms Community
Services Block Grant (CSBG) State Plan,
CSBG Eligible Entity Master List, and
the American Customer Survey Index
(ACSI) (OMB #0970–0382, expiration
6/30/2021). There are minimal changes
SUMMARY:
OCS proposes to revise the automated
CSBG State Plan format for states and
territories by revising questions for
clarity and system compatibility. OCS
does not anticipate that these revisions
will cause any additional burden to
CSBG grantees as they have completed
the automated plan for six years. It is
anticipated that the burden will
continue to diminish in subsequent
years due to improved automation.
In addition to the CSBG State Plan,
OCS requests that all grantees revise
their CSBG Eligible Entity Master List in
year one to add the executive director
and website for each agency. Grantees
will revise the Master List as necessary
in subsequent years. As the CSBG
Eligible Entity Master List is already
completed and states have the
information about their eligible entities
(or sub-grantees), the burden will be
minimal to the states to provide the
additional requested information.
Lastly, the request includes a survey
for the sub-grantees (or CSBG-eligible
entities). The survey focuses on the
customer service that the CSBG subgrantees receive from the CSBG
grantees. The survey is optional, and
this will be the fifth time that the CSBG
sub-grantees that chose to submit will
complete it. There are no revisions
proposed to the survey.
Respondents: State governments,
including the District of Columbia and
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and
U.S. territories, and local level subgrantees.
ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES
Total
number of
respondents
Instrument
CSBG State Plan Application for States .............................
CSBG Eligible Entity Master List .........................................
CSBG ACSI Survey of Eligible Entities ...............................
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 1,848 hours for CSBG grantees;
111 for CSBG sub-grantees.
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Authority: Sec. 676, Pub. L. 105–285, 112
Stat. 2735 (42 U.S.C. 9908)
Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2021–13742 Filed 6–25–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184–27–P
Total
number of
responses per
respondent
56
56
1,007
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA–2020–E–1328]
Determination of Regulatory Review
Period for Purposes of Patent
Extension; Smallpox and Monkeypox
Vaccine, Live
Food and Drug Administration,
HHS.
ACTION:
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3
3
1
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
AGENCY:
PO 00000
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Average
burden hours
per response
31
2
.33
Total
burden
hours
5,208
336
332
Annual
burden
hours
1,736
112
111
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA or the Agency) has
determined the regulatory review period
for Smallpox and Monkeypox Vaccine,
Live and is publishing this notice of that
determination as required by law. FDA
has made the determination because of
the submission of an application to the
Director of the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO), Department
of Commerce, for the extension of a
patent which claims that human
biological product.
DATES: Anyone with knowledge that any
of the dates as published (see
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\28JNN1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 121 (Monday, June 28, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34010-34018]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-13842]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further
Spread of COVID-19
AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).
ACTION: Agency Order.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), located
within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the
extension of an Order under Section 361 of the Public Health Service
Act to temporarily halt residential evictions to prevent the further
spread of COVID-19.
DATES: This Order is effective July 1, 2021, through July 31, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tiffany Brown, Deputy Chief of Staff,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS
H21-10, Atlanta, GA 30329. Phone: 404-639-7000. Email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
This Order further extends the original temporary eviction
moratorium Order published on September 4, 2020, as initially extended
by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and further extended by
the Orders published on January 29, 2021 and March 31, 2021 set to
expire on June 30, 2021. Because of COVID-19, household crowding and
transmission, and the increased risk of individuals sheltering in close
quarters in congregate settings such as homeless shelters, which may be
unable to provide adequate social distancing as populations increase,
extending the temporary halt on evictions is appropriate. This Order
further extends the prior Eviction Moratoria for what is currently
intended to be a final 30 day-period, until July 31, 2021.
The Order is extended through July 31, 2021 based on current and
projected epidemiological context of SARS-CoV-2 transmission throughout
the United States.
A copy of the Order is provided below. A copy of the signed Order
and Declaration form can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-eviction-declaration.html.
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
ORDER UNDER SECTION 361 OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT (42 U.S.C.
264) AND 42 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS 70.2
TEMPORARY HALT IN RESIDENTIAL EVICTIONS TO PREVENT THE FURTHER SPREAD
OF COVID-19
Summary
Subject to the limitations under ``Applicability,'' a landlord,
owner of a residential property, or other person \1\ with a legal right
to pursue eviction or possessory action, shall not evict any covered
person from any residential property in any jurisdiction to which this
Order applies during the effective period of the Order.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ For purposes of this Order, ``person'' includes
corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships,
societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Definitions
``Available government assistance'' means any governmental rental
or housing payment benefits available to the individual or any
household member.
``Available housing'' means any available, unoccupied residential
property, or other space for occupancy in any seasonal or temporary
housing, that would not violate Federal, State, or local occupancy
standards and that would not result in an overall increase of housing
cost to such individual.
``Covered person'' \2\ means any tenant, lessee, or resident of a
residential
[[Page 34011]]
property who provides to their landlord, the owner of the residential
property, or other person with a legal right to pursue eviction or a
possessory action,\3\ a declaration under penalty of perjury indicating
that:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ This definition is based on factors that are known to
contribute to evictions and thus increase the need for individuals
to move into close quarters in new congregate or shared living
arrangements or experience homelessness. Individuals who suffer job
loss, have limited financial resources, are low income, or have high
out-of-pocket medical expenses are more likely to be evicted for
nonpayment of rent than others not experiencing these factors. See
Desmond, M., Gershenson, C., Who gets evicted? Assessing individual,
neighborhood, and network factors, Soc Sci Res. 2017;62:362-377.
doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.08.017, (identifying job loss as a
possible predictor of eviction because renters who lose their jobs
experience not only a sudden loss of income but also the loss of
predictable future income). According to one survey, over one
quarter (26%) of respondents also identified job loss as the primary
cause of homelessness. See 2019 San Francisco Homeless Count &
Survey Comprehensive Report, Applied Survey Research, at 22, https://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019HIRDReport_SanFrancisco_FinalDraft-1.pdf (last viewed Mar. 24,
2021).
\3\ As used throughout this Order, this would include, without
limitation, an agent or attorney acting on behalf of the landlord or
the owner of the residential property.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) The individual has used best efforts to obtain all available
government assistance for rent or housing;
(2) The individual either (i) earned no more than $99,000 (or
$198,000 if filing jointly) in Calendar Year 2020, or expects to earn
no more than $99,000 in annual income for Calendar Year 2021 (or no
more than $198,000 if filing a joint tax return),\4\ (ii) was not
required to report any income in 2020 to the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service, or (iii) received an Economic Impact Payment (stimulus
check).5 6
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ According to one study, the national two-bedroom housing
wage in 2020 was $23.96 per hour (approximately, $49,837 annually),
meaning that an hourly wage of $23.96 was needed to afford a modest
two-bedroom house without spending more than 30% of one's income on
rent. The hourly wage needed in Hawaii (the highest cost U.S. State
for rent) was $38.76 (approximately $80,621 annually). See Out of
Reach: How Much do you Need to Earn to Afford a Modest Apartment in
Your State?, National Low Income Housing Coalition, https://reports.nlihc.org/oor (last visited Mar. 23, 2021). As further
explained herein, because this Order is intended to serve the
critical public health goal of preventing evicted individuals from
potentially contributing to the interstate spread of COVID-19
through movement into close quarters in new congregate, shared
housing settings, or through homelessness, the higher income
thresholds listed here have been determined to better serve this
goal.
\5\ ``Stimulus check'' includes payments made pursuant to
Section 2201 of the CARES Act, to Section 9601 of the American
Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or to any similar federally authorized
payments made to individual natural persons in 2020 and 2021.
Eligibility for the 2020 or 2021 stimulus checks has been based on
an income that is equal to or lower than the income thresholds
described above and does not change or expand who is a covered
person under this Order since it was entered into on September 4,
2020.
\6\ A person is likely to qualify for protection under this
Order if they receive the following benefits: (a) Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); (b) Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP); (c) Supplemental Security Income (SSI);
or (d) Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) to the extent that
income limits for these programs are less than or equal to the
income limits for this Order. However, it is the individual's
responsibility to verify that their income is within the income
limits described.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) The individual is unable to pay the full rent or make a full
housing payment due to substantial loss of household income, loss of
compensable hours of work or wages, a lay-off, or extraordinary \7\
out-of-pocket medical expenses;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Extraordinary expenses are defined as those that prevented
you from paying some or all of your rent or providing for other
basic necessities like food security. To qualify as an extraordinary
medical expense, the unreimbursed medical expense is one that is
likely to exceed 7.5% of one's adjusted gross income for the year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) The individual is using best efforts to make timely partial
payments that are as close to the full payment as the individual's
circumstances may permit, taking into account other nondiscretionary
expenses; and
(5) Eviction would likely render the individual homeless--or force
the individual to move into and live in close quarters in a new
congregate or shared living setting--because the individual has no
other available housing options.
``Evict'' and ``Eviction'' means any action by a landlord, owner of
a residential property, or other person with a legal right to pursue
eviction or possessory action, to remove or cause the removal of a
covered person from a residential property. This definition also does
not prohibit foreclosure on a home mortgage.
``Residential property'' means any property leased for residential
purposes, including any house, building, mobile home or land in a
mobile home park,\8\ or similar dwelling leased for residential
purposes, but shall not include any hotel, motel, or other guest house
rented to a temporary guest or seasonal tenant as defined under the
laws of the State, territorial, tribal, or local jurisdiction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Mobile home parks may also be referred to as manufactured
housing communities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
``State'' shall have the same definition as under 42 CFR 70.1,
meaning ``any of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.''
``U.S. territory'' shall have the same definition as under 42 CFR
70.1, meaning ``any territory (also known as possessions) of the United
States, including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands,
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.''
Statement of intent
This Order shall be interpreted and implemented in a manner as to
achieve the following objectives:
Mitigating the spread of COVID-19 within crowded,
congregate or shared living settings, or through unsheltered
homelessness;
Mitigating the further spread of COVID-19 from one State
or territory into any other State or territory;
Mitigating the further spread of COVID-19 by temporarily
suspending the eviction of covered persons from residential property
for nonpayment of rent; and
Supporting response efforts to COVID-19 at the Federal,
State, local, territorial, and tribal levels.
Background
COVID-19 in the United States
Since January 2020, the respiratory disease known as ``COVID-19,''
caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2), has spread globally,
including cases reported in all fifty states within the United States,
plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. As of June 23,
2021, there have been over 179 million cases of COVID-19 globally,
resulting in over 3,800,000 deaths.\9\ Over 33,300,000 cases have been
identified in the United States, with new cases reported daily, and
over 599,000 deaths due to the disease.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and
Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Johns Hopkins
Coronavirus Resource Center, https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
(last updated June 23, 2021).
\10\ COVID Data Tracker, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home (last updated June 22, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads very easily and sustainably
between people, particularly those who are in close contact with one
another (within about 6 feet, but occasionally over longer distances),
mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person
coughs, sneezes, or talks. Individuals without symptoms can also spread
the virus.\11\ Among adults, the risk for severe illness from COVID-19
increases with age, with older adults at highest risk. Severe illness
means that persons with COVID-19 may require hospitalization, intensive
care, or a ventilator to help them breathe, and may be fatal. People of
any age with certain underlying medical conditions (e.g. cancer,
obesity, serious heart conditions, or diabetes) are at increased risk
for severe illness from COVID-19.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ Kimball A, Hatfield KM, Arons M, et al. Asymptomatic and
Presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Residents of a Long-Term
Care Skilled Nursing Facility--King County, Washington, March 2020.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:377-381. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6913e1.
\12\ Razzaghi H, Wang Y, Lu H, et al. Estimated County-Level
Prevalence of Selected Underlying Medical Conditions Associated with
Increased Risk for Severe COVID-19 Illness--United States, 2018.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:945-950. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6929a1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available in the United States,
and all
[[Page 34012]]
people 12 years and older are recommended to be vaccinated against
COVID-19. Three COVID-19 vaccines are currently authorized by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use: two mRNA vaccines
(Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna) and one viral vector vaccine (Johnson &
Johnson/Janssen), each of which has been determined to be safe and
effective against COVID-19. As of June 22, 2021, over 150.3 million
people in the United States (more than 53% of the population 12 years
or older) have been fully immunized.\13\ However, as with other
transmissible diseases in densely populated congregate settings, the
risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection is greater as long as there is continued
community transmission of the virus. As vaccination coverage increases,
phasing out prevention measures for fully vaccinated people, ideally
those measures that are the most disruptive to individuals and society,
will be increasingly feasible.\14\ However, the vaccination program is
still underway; nearly half of the eligible population is not yet fully
vaccinated; and children under age 12 are not yet eligible for
vaccines. And, although rare, fully vaccinated people may become
infected with COVID-19.\15\ Moreover, CDC recognizes the risk that even
vaccinated people face in densely populated congregate settings. CDC
therefore continues to recommend mask use by all people in areas like
homeless shelters and other congregate settings.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations (last updated June 22, 2021).
\14\ Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated
People. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html (last updated May 28, 2021).
\15\ COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections Reported to CDC--
United States, January 1-April 30, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
2021;70:792-793. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7021e3.
\16\ Interim Guidance for Homeless Service Providers to Plan and
Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/homeless-shelters/plan-prepare-respond.html (last updated
June 8, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
New variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged globally,\17\ several of
which have been identified as variants of concern.\18\ Variants of
concern, including the variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon,
are those for which there is evidence of an increase in
transmissibility, more severe disease, reduction in neutralization by
antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced
effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection
failures.\19\ The Alpha variant has become the predominant SARS-CoV-2
strain circulating in the United States; however the proportion of
Delta variant cases has increased recently.\20\ Available evidence
suggests the currently authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-
BioNTech and Moderna) provide significant protection against known
variant strains.\21\ Other vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca, show
reduced efficacy against infection with certain variants but may still
protect against severe disease. Given the predominance of variant
strains and the continued emergence of new variants, ongoing monitoring
of vaccine effectiveness is needed to identify mutations that could
render vaccines most commonly used in the U.S. less effective against
more transmissible variants like the Delta variant, which now makes up
almost 10 percent of U.S. cases, up from 2.7 percent in May.\22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ Abdool Karim SS, de Oliveira T. New SARS-CoV-2 Variants--
Clinical, Public Health, and Vaccine Implications [published online
ahead of print, 2021 Mar 24]. N Engl J Med. 2021;10.1056/
NEJMc2100362. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2100362.
\18\ Id.
\19\ SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/variant-info.html#Concern (last updated June 22,
2021).
\20\ Id.
\21\ Science Brief: COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/fully-vaccinated-people.html (last
updated May 27, 2021).
\22\ According to data with an end collection date of June 5,
2021. Variant Proportions, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions (last updated June 22, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the context of a pandemic, eviction moratoria--like quarantine,
isolation, and social distancing--can be an effective public health
measure utilized to prevent the spread of communicable disease.
Eviction moratoria facilitate self-isolation and self-quarantine by
people who become ill or who are at risk of transmitting COVID-19.
Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
(CARES) Act (Pub. L. 116-136) to aid individuals and businesses
adversely affected by COVID-19 in March 2020. Section 4024 of the CARES
Act provided a 120-day moratorium on eviction filings as well as other
protections for tenants in certain rental properties with Federal
assistance or federally related financing. These protections helped
alleviate the public health consequences of tenant displacement during
the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act eviction moratorium expired on
July 24, 2020. The protections in the CARES Act supplemented temporary
eviction moratoria and rent freezes implemented by governors and other
local officials using emergency powers.
Researchers estimated that this temporary Federal moratorium
provided relief to a material portion of the nation's roughly 43
million renters.\23\ The CARES act also provided funding streams for
emergency rental assistance; surveys estimate that this assistance
became available to the public through rental assistance programs by
July 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\ Laurie Goodman, Karan Kaul, and Michael Neal. The CARES Act
Eviction Moratorium Covers All Federally Financed Rentals--That's
One in Four US Rental Units. The Urban Institute. April 2, 2020.
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/cares-act-eviction-moratorium-covers-all-federally-financed-rentals-thats-one-four-us-rental-units.
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The Federal moratorium provided by the CARES Act, however, did not
reach all renters. Many renters who fell outside the scope of the
Federal moratorium were instead protected under State and local
moratoria. In early March, 2021, the Census Household Pulse Survey
estimated that 6.4 million households were behind on rent, and just
under half fear imminent eviction.\24\ In 2016, research showed that
there were 3.6 million eviction filings and 1.5 million eviction
judgments over the span of a whole year,\25\ meaning that a wave of
evictions on the scale feared by households would be unprecedented in
modern times. A large portion of those who are evicted may move into
close quarters in shared housing or, as discussed below, become
homeless, thus becoming at higher risk of COVID-19.
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\24\ Census Household Pulse Survey: Key Phase 3 Housing Payment
Findings. Office of Policy Development and Research, HUDUser (April
26, 2021). https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-trending-042621.html.
\25\ Ashley Gromis. Eviction: Intersection of Poverty,
Inequality, and Housing. Eviction Lab, Princeton University (May
2019). https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/05/GROMIS_Ashley_Paper.pdf.
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On September 4, 2020, the CDC Director issued an Order temporarily
halting evictions in the United States for the reasons described
therein. That Order was set to expire on December 31, 2020, subject to
further extension, modification, or rescission. Section 502 of Title V,
Division N of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended the
Order until January 31, 2021, and approved the Order as an exercise of
the CDC's authority under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act
(42 U.S.C. 264). With the extension of the Order, Congress also
provided $25 billion for emergency rental
[[Page 34013]]
assistance for the payment of rent and rental arrears. Congress later
provided an additional $21.55 billion in emergency rental assistance
when it passed the American Rescue Plan.
On January 29, 2021, following an assessment of the ongoing
pandemic, the CDC Director renewed the Order until March 31, 2021. On
March 28, 2021, the CDC Director modified and extended the Order until
June 30, 2021. This Order further extends the prior Eviction Moratoria
for what is currently intended to be a final 30-day period, until July
31, 2021, for the reasons described herein. Although this Order is
subject to revision based on the changing public health landscape,
absent an unexpected change in the trajectory of the pandemic, CDC does
not plan to extend the Order further. To the extent any provision of
this Order conflicts with prior Orders, this Order is controlling.
Researchers estimate that, in 2020, Federal, State, and local
eviction moratoria led to over one million fewer evictions than the
previous year.\26\ Additional research shows that, despite the CDC
eviction moratorium leading to an estimated 50% decrease in eviction
filings compared to the historical average, there have still been over
100,000 eviction filings since September just within approximately 35
cities and states with more readily available data, suggesting high
demand and likelihood of mass evictions.\27\
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\26\ Hepburn P, Louis R, Fish J, et al. U.S. Eviction Filing
Patterns in 2020. Socius. January 2021. doi:10.1177/
23780231211009983.
\27\ Peter Hepburn and Renee Louis. Preliminary Analysis: Six
Months of the CDC Eviction Moratorium (March 8, 2021). https://evictionlab.org/six-months-cdc/.
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Eviction, Crowding, and Interstate Transmission of Covid-19
By February 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury had paid
all of the $25 billion made available by the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2021 to states, territories, localities and
tribes for the purpose of providing emergency rental assistance to
eligible households in their jurisdictions. Additionally, as directed
in the Act, Treasury has also made available 40 percent--more than $8.6
billion--of the additional funding to states, territories and
localities for emergency rental assistance provided in the American
Rescue Plan. Based on data collected from grantees, Treasury reports
that over 630,000 households had already applied for emergency rental
assistance by the end of March--when many State and local programs had
not yet opened for applications. Though there are indications that
emergency rental assistance has started to reach increasing numbers of
families over recent months, State and local agencies likely have
hundreds of thousands of applications for assistance that currently
remain outstanding as programs accelerate their activity. According to
Treasury, more households--over 96,000--were served in April than in
the entire first quarter. Assistance accelerated in May, with over a
fifty percent increase in households served compared to the previous
month. The level of assistance provided to low income households is
expected to continue increasing because some states started accepting
rental assistance applications in late May, including as late as June
1, and now all states are operating programs. Based on analysis of
grantee reporting, Treasury believes that State and local emergency
rental assistance programs will collectively deploy more rental
assistance in July than in any previous month. In addition to Emergency
Rental Assistance, there are coordinated efforts across Federal
agencies to--in partnership with states and localities--promote
eviction prevention strategies.
An unprecedented and avoidable surge of evictions is likely to
occur if the national moratorium were to conclude on June 30. Recent
data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey demonstrates that an
increased percentage of households behind on rent believe that an
eviction is likely in the next two months.\28\ A surge in evictions
could lead to the immediate and significant movement of large numbers
of persons from lower density to higher density housing. This potential
for a mass movement of persons would occur at precisely the same time
that our nation is actively engaged in a widespread vaccination effort.
This vaccination effort has a slower rate of penetration among the
populations most likely to experience eviction, and such a mass
movement would place increased stress on the homeless service
system.\29\ In combination with the continued underlying COVID-19
spread, and the overlapping factors described above, this would create
considerable risk for rapid transmission of COVID-19 in high risk
settings. Allowing additional time for rent relief to reach renters and
to further increase vaccination rates through the end of July 2021
could decrease the numbers of likely evictions and avert the potential
of COVID-19 resurgence among people who experience eviction, their
communities, and other regions of the country affected by the resulting
transmission.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\28\ Household Pulse Survey Interactive Tool. U.S. Census
Bureau. https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/hhp/#/ (last visited
June 23, 2021).
\29\ Barry V, Dasgupta S, Weller DL, et al. Patterns in COVID-19
Vaccination Coverage, by Social Vulnerability and Urbanicity--United
States, December 14, 2020-May 1, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
2021;70:818-824. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7022e1.
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Evicted renters must move, which leads to multiple outcomes that
increase the risk of COVID-19 spread. Specifically, many evicted
renters move into close quarters in shared housing or other congregate
settings. These moves may require crossing State borders. According to
the Census Bureau American Housing Survey, 32% of renters reported that
they would move in with friends or family members upon eviction, which
would introduce new household members and potentially increase
household crowding. Studies show that COVID-19 transmission occurs
readily within households. The secondary attack rate in households has
been estimated to be 17%, and household contacts are estimated to be 6
times more likely to become infected by an index case of COVID-19 than
other close contacts.\30\ A study of pregnant women in New York City
showed that women in large households (greater number of residents per
household) were three times as likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2
than those in smaller households, and those in neighborhoods with
greater household crowding (>=1 resident per room) were twice as likely
to test positive.\31\ Throughout the United States, counties with the
highest proportion of crowded households have experienced COVID-19
mortality rates 2.6 times those of counties with the lowest proportion
of crowded households.
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\30\ Qin-Long Jing, et al. Household secondary attack rate of
COVID-19 and associated determinants in Guangzhou, China: a
retrospective cohort study. The Lancet.2020 June 17; vol. 20.10;
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30471-0.
\31\ Ukachi N. Emeruwa, et al. Associations Between Built
Environment, Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status, and SARS-CoV-2
Infection Among Pregnant Women in New York City. JAMA.
2020;324(4):390-392. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.11370.
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Shared housing is not limited to friends and family. It includes a
broad range of settings, including transitional housing and domestic
violence and abuse shelters. Special considerations exist for such
housing because of the challenges of maintaining social distance.
Residents often gather closely or use shared equipment, such as kitchen
appliances, laundry facilities, stairwells, and elevators. Residents
may have unique needs, such as disabilities, chronic health conditions,
cognitive
[[Page 34014]]
decline, or limited access to technology, and thus may find it more
difficult to take actions to protect themselves from COVID-19. CDC
recommends that shelters provide new residents with a clean mask, keep
them isolated from others, screen for symptoms at entry, or arrange for
medical evaluations as needed depending on symptoms. Accordingly, an
influx of new residents at facilities that offer support services could
potentially overwhelm staff and, if recommendations are not followed,
lead to exposures.
Modeling studies and preliminary observational data from the pre-
vaccine phase of the COVID-19 pandemic comparing incidence between
states that implemented and lifted eviction moratoria indicate that
evictions substantially contribute to COVID-19 transmission. In
mathematical models where eviction led exclusively to sharing housing
with friends or family, lifting eviction moratoria led to a 30%
increased risk of contracting COVID-19 among people who were evicted
and those with whom they shared housing after eviction.\32\ Compared to
a scenario where no evictions occurred, the models also predicted a 4%-
40% increased risk of infection, even for those who did not share
housing, as a result of increased overall transmission. The authors
estimated that anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 excess cases per million
population could be attributable to evictions depending on the eviction
and infection rates.
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\32\ Nande A, Sheen J, Walters EL, Klein B, Chinazzi M, Gheorghe
AH, Adlam B, Shinnick J, Tejeda MF, Scarpino SV, Vespignani A,
Greenlee AJ, Schneider D, Levy MZ, Hill AL. The effect of eviction
moratoria on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Commun. 2021 Apr
15;12(1):2274. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22521-5. PMID: 33859196;
PMCID: PMC8050248.
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An analysis of observational data from State-based eviction
moratoria in 43 states and the District of Columbia showed significant
increases in COVID-19 incidence and mortality approximately 2-3 months
after eviction moratoria were lifted (pre-peer review). Specifically,
the authors compared the COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates in
states that lifted their moratoria with the rates in states that
maintained their moratoria. In these models, the authors accounted for
time-varying indicators of each State's test count as well as major
public-health interventions including lifting stay-at-home orders,
school closures, and mask mandates. After adjusting for these other
changes, they found that the incidence of COVID-19 in states that
lifted their moratoria was 1.6 times that of states that did not at 10
weeks post-lifting (95% CI 1.0, 2.3), a ratio that grew to 2.1 at >=16
weeks (CI 1.1, 3.9). Similarly, they found that mortality in states
that lifted their moratoria was 1.6 times that of states that did not
at 7 weeks post-lifting (CI 1.2, 2.3), a ratio that grew to 5.4 at >=16
weeks (CI 3.1, 9.3). The authors estimated that, nationally, over
433,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 10,000 deaths could be attributed to
lifting State moratoria.\33\
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\33\ Leifheit, Kathryn M. and Linton, Sabriya L. and Raifman,
Julia and Schwartz, Gabriel and Benfer, Emily and Zimmerman,
Frederick J and Pollack, Craig, Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and
COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality (November 30, 2020). Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3739576 or https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3739576.
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Although data are limited, available evidence suggests evictions
lead to interstate spread of COVID-19 in two ways. First, an eviction
may lead the evicted members of a household to move across State lines.
Of the 35 million people in America who move each year, 15% move to a
new State. Second, even if a particular eviction, standing alone, would
not always result in interstate displacement, the mass evictions that
would occur in the absence of this Order would inevitably increase the
interstate spread of COVID-19. This Order cannot effectively mitigate
interstate transmission of COVID-19 without covering intrastate
evictions (evictions occurring within the boundaries of a State or
territory), as the level of spread of SARS-CoV-2 resulting from these
evictions can lead to SARS-CoV-2 transmission across State borders.
Moreover, intrastate spread facilitates interstate spread in the
context of communicable disease spread, given the nature of infectious
disease. In the aggregate, the mass-scale evictions that will likely
occur in the absence of this Order will inevitably increase interstate
spread of COVID-19.
Eviction, Homelessness, and Covid-19 Transmission
Evicted individuals without access to support or other assistance
options may become homeless, including older adults or those with
underlying medical conditions, who are more at risk for severe illness
from COVID-19 than the general population. In Seattle-King County, 5-
15% of people experiencing homelessness between 2018 and 2020 cited
eviction as the primary reason for becoming homeless.\34\ Additionally,
some individuals and families who are evicted may originally stay with
family or friends, but subsequently seek homeless services. Data
collection by an emergency shelter in Columbus, Ohio, showed that 35.4%
of families and 11.4% of single adults reported an eviction as the
primary or secondary reason for their seeking shelter.\35\
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\34\ Count Us In 2020. KCRHA (July 2020). https://kcrha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Count-Us_In-2020-Final_7.29.2020.pdf.
\35\ Chester Hartman and David Robinson. ``Evictions: The Hidden
Housing Problem'' in Housing Policy Debate. 2003.
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Extensive outbreaks of COVID-19 have been identified in homeless
shelters. In Seattle, Washington, a network of three related homeless
shelters experienced an outbreak that led to 43 cases among residents
and staff members. In Boston, Massachusetts, universal COVID-19 testing
at a single shelter revealed 147 cases, representing 36% of shelter
residents. COVID-19 testing in a single shelter in San Francisco led to
the identification of 101 cases (67% of those tested). Data from 557
universal diagnostic testing events at homeless shelters in 21 states
show an average of 6% positivity among shelter clients. Data comparing
the incidence or severity of COVID-19 among people experiencing
homelessness directly to the general population are limited. However,
during the 15-day period of the outbreak in Boston, MA, researchers
estimated a cumulative incidence of 46.3 cases of COVID-19 per 1000
persons experiencing homelessness, as compared to 1.9 cases per 1000
among Massachusetts adults (pre-print).
CDC guidance recommends increasing physical distance between beds
in homeless shelters, which is likely to decrease capacity, while
community transmission of COVID-19 is occurring. These guidelines are
similar to other guidance issued for other congregate settings such as
prisons and jails. To adhere to this guidance, shelters have limited
the number of people served throughout the United States. In many
places, considerably fewer beds are available to individuals who become
homeless. Shelters that do not adhere to the guidance, and operate at
ordinary or increased occupancy, are at greater risk for the types of
outbreaks described above. The challenge of mitigating disease
transmission in homeless shelters has been compounded because some
organizations have chosen to stop or limit volunteer access and
participation.
Persons at Higher Risk of Eviction May Also be at Higher Risk of Being
Unvaccinated
At this time, communities with high rates of eviction may currently
have lower coverage of COVID-19 vaccination--a focus for current
[[Page 34015]]
vaccination campaigns. In the spring of 2021, counties with high social
vulnerability (i.e., social and structural factors associated with
adverse health outcome inclusive of socioeconomic indicators related to
risk of eviction) were shown to have lower levels of COVID-19
vaccination.\36\
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\36\ Barry V, Dasgupta S, Weller DL, Kriss JL, Cadwell BL, Rose
C, Pingali C, Musial T, Sharpe JD, Flores SA, Greenlund KJ, Patel A,
Stewart A, Qualters JR, Harris L, Barbour KE, Black CL. Patterns in
COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage, by Social Vulnerability and
Urbanicity--United States, December 14, 2020-May 1, 2021. MMWR Morb
Mortal Wkly Rep. 2021 Jun 4;70(22):818-824. doi: 10.15585/
mmwr.mm7022e1. PMID: 34081685; PMCID: PMC8174677.
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CDC Eviction Moratorium
The Department of the Treasury continues to distribute emergency
rental assistance funds that may help mitigate spikes in COVID-19
transmission due to increases in evictions. These funds are expected to
make a meaningful difference for hundreds of thousands of people who
are expected to receive the rental assistance in the 30-day horizon of
this Order, alongside other Federal and State efforts to prevent
evictions.\37\
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\37\ Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance Programs in 2021:
Analysis of a National Survey. National Low Income Housing
Coalition. June 2021. https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/HIP_NLIHC_Furman_2021_6-22_FINAL_v2.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On September 4, 2020, the CDC Director issued an Order temporarily
halting evictions in the United States for the reasons described
therein. That Order was set to expire on December 31, 2020, subject to
further extension, modification, or rescission. Section 502 of Title V,
Division N of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended the
Order until January 31, 2021. With the extension of the Order, Congress
also provided $25 billion for emergency rental assistance for the
payment of rent and rental arrears. Congress later provided an
additional $21.55 billion in emergency rental assistance when it passed
the American Rescue Plan.
On January 29, 2021, following an assessment of the ongoing
pandemic, the CDC Director renewed the Order until March 31, 2021. On
March 28, the CDC Director renewed the Order until June 30, 2021. This
Order further extends the prior Eviction Moratorium until July 31,
2021, for the reasons described herein, while the Department of the
Treasury disburses the remaining ERA funds to State and local
jurisdictions, and those grantees continue to accelerate efforts to
deploy rental assistance on behalf of tenants. To the extent any
provision of this Order conflicts with prior Orders, this Order is
controlling.
Applicability
This Order does not apply in any State, local, territorial, or
tribal area with a moratorium on residential evictions that provides
the same or greater level of public-health protection than the
requirements listed in this Order or to the extent its application is
prohibited by Federal court order. In accordance with 42 U.S.C. 264(e),
this Order does not preclude State, local, territorial, and tribal
authorities from imposing additional requirements that provide greater
public-health protection and are more restrictive than the requirements
in this Order.
This Order is a temporary eviction moratorium to prevent the
further spread of COVID-19. This Order does not relieve any individual
of any obligation to pay rent, make a housing payment, or comply with
any other obligation that the individual may have under a tenancy,
lease, or similar contract. Nothing in this Order precludes the
charging or collecting of fees, penalties, or interest as a result of
the failure to pay rent or other housing payment on a timely basis,
under the terms of any applicable contract. Nothing in this Order
precludes evictions based on a tenant, lessee, or resident: (1)
Engaging in criminal activity while on the premises; (2) threatening
the health or safety of other residents; \38\ (3) damaging or posing an
immediate and significant risk of damage to property; (4) violating any
applicable building code, health ordinance, or similar regulation
relating to health and safety; or (5) violating any other contractual
obligation, other than the timely payment of rent or similar housing-
related payment (including non-payment or late payment of fees,
penalties, or interest).
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\38\ Individuals who might have COVID-19 are advised to stay
home except to get medical care. Accordingly, individuals who might
have COVID-19 and take reasonable precautions to not spread the
disease should not be evicted on the ground that they may pose a
health or safety threat to other residents. See What to Do if You
are Sick, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html (last updated Mar. 17, 2021).
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Any evictions for nonpayment of rent initiated prior to September
4, 2020, but not yet completed, are subject to this Order. Any tenant,
lessee, or resident of a residential property who qualifies as a
``Covered Person'' and is still present in a rental unit is entitled to
protections under this Order. Any eviction that was completed prior to
September 4, 2020, is not subject to this Order.
Under this Order, covered persons may be evicted for engaging in
criminal activity while on the premises. But covered persons may not be
evicted on the sole basis that they are alleged to have committed the
crime of trespass (or similar State-law offense) where the underlying
activity is a covered person remaining in a residential property for
nonpayment of rent. Permitting such evictions would result in
substantially more evictions overall, thus increasing the risk of
disease transmission as otherwise covered persons move into congregate
settings or experience homelessness. This result would be contrary to
the stated objectives of this Order, and therefore would diminish their
effectiveness. Moreover, to the extent such criminal trespass laws are
invoked to establish criminal activity solely based on a tenant,
lessee, or resident of a residential property remaining in a
residential property despite the nonpayment of rent, such invocation
conflicts with this Order and is preempted pursuant to 42 U.S.C.
264(e).
Individuals who are confirmed to have, who have been exposed to, or
who might have COVID-19 and take reasonable precautions to not spread
the disease may not be evicted on grounds that they may pose a health
or safety threat to other residents.
The Order is extended through July 31, 2021, based on the current
and projected epidemiological context of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
throughout the United States. This 30-day extension, intended to be the
final iteration, will allow the assessment of natural changes to COVID-
19 incidence, the influences of new variants, additional distribution
of emergency rental assistance funds, and the expansion of COVID-19
vaccine uptake.
Declaration Forms
To qualify for the protections of this Order, a tenant, lessee, or
resident of a residential property must provide a completed and signed
copy of a declaration with the elements listed in the definition of
``Covered person'' to their landlord, owner of the residential property
where they live, or other person who has a right to have them evicted
or removed from where they live. To assist tenants and landlords, the
CDC created a standardized declaration form that can be downloaded
here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf.
Tenants, lessees, and residents of residential property are not
obligated to use the CDC form. Any written document that an eligible
tenant, lessee, or residents of residential property presents to their
landlord will comply with this Order, as long as it contains
[[Page 34016]]
the required elements of ``Covered person'' as described in this Order.
In addition, tenants, lessees, and residents of residential property
are allowed to declare in writing that they meet the elements of
covered person in other languages.
All declarations, regardless of form used, must be signed, and must
include a statement that the tenant, lessee, or resident of a
residential property understands that they could be liable for perjury
for any false or misleading statements or omissions in the declaration.
This Order does not preclude a landlord challenging the truthfulness of
a tenant's, lessee's, or resident's declaration in court, as permitted
under State or local law.
In certain circumstances, such as individuals filing a joint tax
return, it may be appropriate for one member of the residence to
provide an executed declaration on behalf of the other adult residents
party to the lease, rental agreement, or housing contract. The
declaration may be signed and transmitted either electronically or by
hard copy.
As long as the information in a previously signed declaration
submitted under a previous order remains submit a new declaration under
this Order.
Findings and Action
Determination
For the reasons described herein, I am extending the September 4,
2020 Order, as extended by section 502 of Title V, Division N of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and further extended and modified
by the January 29, 2021 and March 28, 2021 Orders. I have determined
based on the information below that extending the temporary halt in
evictions in this Order constitutes a reasonably necessary measure
under 42 CFR 70.2 to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 throughout
the United States. I have further determined that measures by states,
localities, or territories that do not meet or exceed these minimum
protections are insufficient to prevent the interstate spread of COVID-
19.
State and local jurisdictions continue to distribute emergency
rental assistance funds, provided by the Department of Treasury, that
will help avert a spate of evictions and thus mitigate corresponding
spikes in COVID-19 transmission. Although trends have improved
dramatically since January 2021, there continues to be ongoing
transmission of approximately 10,000 cases per day in the United
States.\39\
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\39\ COVID Data Tracker, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendscases (last updated June 22, 2021).
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Congress has appropriated approximately $46 billion--of which
almost three-quarters is currently available to State and local
grantees--to help pay rent and rental arrears for tenants who may
otherwise be at high risk of eviction. According to estimates based on
the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, approximately 6.4 million
renter households are behind on their rent as of March 29, 2021. The
successful delivery of those funds by states and localities should
greatly reduce the incidence of eviction that would occur in the
absence of that support. However, many states and localities are still
ramping up the collection and processing of applications and the
delivery of assistance and putting in place other eviction prevention
strategies. It was only in the beginning of June that all State-run
emergency rental assistance programs had opened for applications. If
the moratorium expires on June 30, a wave of evictions, on the order of
hundreds of thousands, could occur this summer and early fall,
exacerbating the spread of COVID-19 among the significant percentage of
the population that remains unvaccinated. In appropriating these
emergency rental assistance funds, Congress intended that the funding
would work in concert with the eviction moratorium, providing time for
rental assistance to reach eligible tenants and landlords to
sustainably reduce the threat of an eviction wave after an eviction
moratorium was no longer in effect. While the pace of assistance is
continuing to increase, without additional time for states and
localities to deliver this needed relief and engage in other efforts to
prevent evictions, a surge of evictions would occur upon the conclusion
of the national moratorium. A surge in evictions would lead to
immediate movement, crowding, and increased stress on the homeless
service system. In combination with ongoing COVID-19 transmission, and
the overlapping factors described above, this would create considerable
risk for the rapid transmission of COVID-19 in high-risk settings.
Allowing additional time for rent relief to reach renters--alongside
other Federal and State actions to prevent evictions--by an extension
through the month of July 2021 can decrease the numbers of likely
evictions and avert the potential of COVID-19 resurgence among people
who experience eviction, their communities, and other regions of the
country affected by the resulting transmission.
Based on the convergence of these issues, I have determined that
extending the temporary halt on evictions is appropriate.
Therefore, under 42 CFR 70.2, subject to the limitations under the
``Applicability'' section, the September 4, 2020 Order, as extended and
modified by the January 29, 2021 and March 28, 2021 Orders, is hereby
extended through July 31, 2021.
Accordingly, a landlord, owner of a residential property, or other
person with a legal right to pursue eviction or possessory action shall
not evict any covered person from any residential property in any State
or U.S. territory where there are documented cases of COVID-19 and the
State or U.S. territory has provided a level of public-health
protections below the requirements listed in this Order.
This Order is not a rule within the meaning of the Administrative
Procedure Act (APA) but rather an emergency action taken under the
existing authority of 42 CFR 70.2. The purpose of Sec. 70.2, which was
promulgated through notice-and-comment rulemaking, is to enable CDC to
take swift steps to prevent contagion without having to seek a second
round of public comments and without a delay in effective date.\40\
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\40\ Chambless Enters., LLC v. Redfield, No. 20-1455, 2020 WL
7588849 (W.D. La. 2020).
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Good Cause
In the event this Order qualifies as a rule under the APA, there is
good cause to dispense with prior public notice and comment and a delay
in effective date. See 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), (d)(3). Good cause exists,
in sum, because the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19
pandemic and the unpredictability of the trajectory of the pandemic
make it impracticable and contrary to the public health, and by
extension the public interest, to delay the issuance and effective date
of this Order.
In the September 4, 2020 Order, the previous CDC Director
determined that good cause existed because the public health emergency
caused by COVID-19 made it impracticable and contrary to the public
health, and by extension the public interest, to delay the issuance and
effective date of the Order. The previous Director also found that a
delay in the effective date of the Order would permit the occurrence of
evictions--potentially on a mass scale--that would have potentially
significant consequences. For these reasons, the previous Director
concluded that the delay in the effective date of the Order
[[Page 34017]]
would defeat the purpose of the Order and endanger the public health
and, therefore, determined that immediate action was necessary. As a
result, the previous Director issued the Order without prior notice and
comment and without a delay in the effective date. I made similar
findings in the January 29, 2021 and March 28, 2021 Orders, and similar
findings, as described herein, continue to exist.
The rapidly changing nature of the pandemic requires not only that
CDC act swiftly, but also deftly to ensure that its actions are
commensurate with the threat. This necessarily involves assessing
evolving conditions that inform CDC's determinations. And although the
pandemic is showing positive trends, the fundamental public health
threat that existed on September 4, 2020, January 29, 2021, and March
28, 2021--the risk of large numbers of residential evictions
contributing to the spread of COVID-19 throughout the United States--
continues to exist. Without this Order, there is every reason to expect
that evictions will increase. It is imperative that public health
authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions,
which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2
transmission even as COVID-19 morbidity and mortality may be waning.
Such mass evictions and the attendant public-health consequences could
unravel positive trends, and would be very difficult to reverse.
For all of these reasons, I hereby conclude that immediate action
is again necessary and that notice-and-comment rulemaking and a delay
in effective date would be impracticable and contrary to the public
interest.
Miscellaneous
Similarly, if this Order qualifies as a rule under the APA, the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has determined that
it would be an economically significant regulatory action pursuant to
Executive Order 12866 and a major rule under Subtitle E of the Small
Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (the Congressional
Review Act or CRA), 5 U.S.C. 804(2). Thus, this action has been
reviewed by OIRA. CDC has determined that for the same reasons given
above, there would be good cause under the CRA to make the requirements
herein effective immediately. 5 U.S.C. 808(2).
If any provision of this Order, or the application of any provision
to any persons, entities, or circumstances, shall be held invalid, the
remainder of the provisions, or the application of such provisions to
any persons, entities, or circumstances other than those to which it is
held invalid, shall remain valid and in effect.
This Order shall be enforced by Federal authorities and cooperating
State and local authorities through the provisions of 18 U.S.C. 3559,
3571; 42 U.S.C. 243, 268, 271; and 42 CFR 70.18. However, this Order
has no effect on the contractual obligations of renters to pay rent and
shall not preclude charging or collecting fees, penalties, or interest
as a result of the failure to pay rent or other housing payment on a
timely basis, under the terms of any applicable contract.
Criminal Penalties
Under 18 U.S.C. 3559, 3571; 42 U.S.C. 271; and 42 CFR 70.18, a
person violating this Order may be subject to a fine of no more than
$100,000 or one year in jail, or both, if the violation does not result
in a death, or a fine of no more than $250,000 or one year in jail, or
both if the violation results in a death, or as otherwise provided by
law. An organization violating this Order may be subject to a fine of
no more than $200,000 per event if the violation does not result in a
death or $500,000 per event if the violation results in a death or as
otherwise provided by law. The U.S. Department of Justice may initiate
criminal proceedings as appropriate seeking imposition of these
criminal penalties.
Notice To Cooperating State and Local Officials
Under 42 U.S.C. 243, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services is authorized to cooperate with and aid State and local
authorities in the enforcement of their quarantine and other health
regulations and to accept State and local assistance in the enforcement
of Federal quarantine rules and regulations, including in the
enforcement of this Order.
Notice of Available Federal Resources
While this Order to prevent eviction is effectuated to protect the
public health, the states and units of local government are reminded
that the Federal Government has deployed unprecedented resources to
address the pandemic, including housing assistance.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the
Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Treasury have
informed CDC that unprecedented emergency resources have been
appropriated through various Federal agencies that assist renters and
landlords during the pandemic, including $46.55 billion to the Treasury
through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American
Rescue Plan (ARP). Furthermore, in 2020 44 states and 310 local
jurisdictions allocated about $3.9 billion toward emergency rental
assistance, largely from funds appropriated to HUD from the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES).\41\ These three rounds of
Federal appropriations also provided substantial resources for homeless
services, homeowner assistance, and supplemental stimulus and
unemployment benefits that low-income renters used to pay rent.
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\41\ Vincent Reina et al, COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance:
Analysis of a National Survey of Programs, Research Brief, https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/HIP_NLIHC_Furman_Brief_FINAL.pdf (last
visited Mar. 26, 2021).
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Visit https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/state-and-local-governments for more information about the Coronavirus Relief
Fund and https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/emergency-rental-assistance-program for more information about the Emergency
Rental Assistance Program. Relevant agencies have informed CDC that
forbearance policies for mortgages backed by the Federal Government
provide many landlords, especially smaller landlords, with temporary
relief as new emergency rental assistance programs are deployed.
Treasury, HUD, and USDA grantees and partners play a critical role in
prioritizing efforts to support this goal. All communities should
assess what resources have already been allocated to prevent evictions
and homelessness through temporary rental assistance and homelessness
prevention, particularly to the most vulnerable households. Treasury,
HUD, and USDA stand at the ready to support American communities in
taking these steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and maintain
economic prosperity.
For program support, including technical assistance, please visit
www.hudexchange.info/program-support. For further information on HUD
resources, tools, and guidance available to respond to the COVID-19
pandemic, State and local officials are directed to visit https://www.hud.gov/coronavirus. These tools include toolkits for Public
Housing Authorities and Housing Choice Voucher landlords related to
housing stability and eviction prevention, as well as similar guidance
for owners and renters in HUD-assisted multifamily properties.
Furthermore, tenants can visit consumerfinance.gov/housing for up-to-
date information on rent relief options, protections, and key
deadlines.
[[Page 34018]]
Effective Date
This Order is effective on July 1, 2021, and will remain in effect
through July 31, 2021, subject to revision based on the changing public
health landscape.
Authority
The authority for this Order is Section 361 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264) and 42 CFR 70.2.
Dated: June 24, 2021.
Sherri Berger,
Chief of Staff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2021-13842 Filed 6-24-21; 2:00 pm]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P
