CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has signed an extension to the residential evictions moratorium further preventing the eviction of tenants who are unable to make rental payment and extending the moratorium through June 30, 2021, according to a release.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health. Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19,” she said in the release.
The original moratorium was set to expire on March 31.
The order says, “a landlord or owner of a residential property or other person with legal right to pursue eviction or possessory action, shall not evict any covered person from any residential property in any jurisdiction in which this order applies during the effective period of the order.”
The CDC said “evictions threaten to increase the spread of covid-19 as they force people to move often into close quarters in new shared housing with friends or family, or congregate settings such as homeless shelters. The ability of these settings to adhere to best practices such as social distancing and other infectious disease control measures decreases as populations increase.”
The order does not prohibit evictions for criminal activity on the leased premises.
Residential evictions: Declaration forms still required from tenants
The declaration forms are still required and the CDC added “a tenant, lessee or resident of a rental property must provide a completed and signed copy of a declaration with the elements listed in the definition” of who is a covered person under to the order “to their landlord, owner of the residential property where they live or other person who has a right to have them evicted or removed.”
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