FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 30th, 2021
Contact:
Matt Howard
Right To The City Alliance
415-819-6430
media@RightToTheCity.org
Right To The City Alliance Statement on Biden Admin & End of Eviction Ban
Yesterday, the Biden Administration announced their intention not to push for an extension of the federal eviction moratorium when it expires at the end of this month. The following is a response from Right To The City Alliance:
“Almost a year since the federal eviction moratorium was implemented we are back to where we begun: With millions of renters at the precipice of eviction, very little in the way of economic security, and no new national solutions implemented to resolve the housing crisis stoked by the pandemic. The White House claimed yesterday that they are powerless to extend the moratorium. We know this is patently untrue. Where there is political will there is a political way and it’s time for the Biden Administration to quit shirking its responsibility and provide necessary leadership to push through an extension of the moratorium through Congress. An extension that stands until renters have the resources and funds to stay housed.
Rent relief budgeted by Congress has been lifted up as a solution but only 6.5% of those funds were distributed in the first half of this year, missing people who desperately needed it. Without the flawed but necessary federal eviction ban we stand on the brink of an unprecedented eviction, housing, and houselessness crisis like we haven’t seen in decades. We need solutions from the ground. Organizations of renters like Chainbreaker Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico have managed to ensure rent relief is distributed swiftly and without the mountains of red tape that hold back programs across the country. They accomplished it with the focus of getting rent to the people who are best positioned to use it: Renters. They focused on direct cash assistance and ensured it was no-strings-attached — making it truly universal and able to get to the people who are systematically left out. These are the kinds of solutions that we need federally, coupled with an extension of the moratorium until all renters and homeowners are whole. Nothing less.”
Dawn Phillips, Executive Director
Right To The City Alliance
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The Beyond Recovery campaign is initiated by the Homes For All campaign and the Right To The City Alliance. Homes For All is a grassroots people’s movement fighting to win permanent, dignified and affordable homes for all people.
