A 60-day eviction moratorium announced Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will cover Bennington, Chittenden, Grand Isle, Franklin and Orleans counties, but the order left state officials and housing advocates with big questions, including whether the order is legal at all.
At a press conference ahead of the CDC’s moratorium announcement, President Joe Biden said he expects the eviction ban to be challenged in court. If the moratorium is ruled illegal, it could end ahead of the 60-day mark.
The ban on evictions covers only counties with at least a substantial spread of Covid-19, which the CDC defines as areas that record 50 or more new cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period.
But with Covid-19 case numbers in constant flux and the future of the pandemic unpredictable, that guideline has raised confusion over what happens if a county with substantial spread succeeds at bringing down its Covid-19 levels.
“The state is still waiting on answers from the federal government,” said Josh Hanford, commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Housing and Community Development. “I don’t want to be in a position to hope for bad public health outcomes.”
The temporary eviction moratorium had different coverages than the state one, which expired July 15, but has the same conditions as the previous CDC moratorium, which ended July 31.
This new moratorium kicks in only for evictions triggered by nonpayment of rent. To be protected, tenants must request moratorium coverage and actively apply for rental assistance from the state.
Because the moratorium covers only counties with substantial spread, eviction proceedings can proceed in most of Vermont. Nine of the state’s 14 counties are not protected. In them, 4,965 Vermont renters owe a total of $14,882,763, according to data from Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit focused on solving health and social problems.
The moratorium is intended to reduce the spread of Covid-19, according to the CDC order. However, it will also give state and local governments more time to arrange rental assistance for people who fell behind on bills during the pandemic and turn temporary eviction reprieves into permanent ones.
“I think the overall message people take from this is that people want to solve this,” said Chris Donnelly, director of community relationships at the Champlain Housing Trust, which develops and oversees affordable homes. “This is a step in the right direction.”
In Vermont, about 76,000 households are rentals, according to the state Housing Needs Assessment, a state analysis used to inform housing policy. And a report from Surgo Ventures using census data shows that 12% of the renters in the state — 9,008 households — are behind on rent, owing a total of $31,952,275. That leaves renters at risk of eviction, and landlords who have been unable to collect rents unable to maintain their properties and pay property taxes and mortgage payments, among other things.
Donnelly said it would be better for everyone if eviction could be avoided.
“The eviction process is not easy,” he said. “It’s certainly life-changing for tenants, and it’s not easy for landlords, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t take the time to do it right. The fact that people are on the same page, looking to find these solutions instead of going straight to eviction, is a good sign.”
As Donnelly noted, the state has the cash to help these people. Vermont received $110 million in emergency rental assistance from the federal government and began handing it out in April. So far, it has allocated $14 million, according to the Vermont State Housing Authority. Hanford said the state is averaging more than $1 million per week through Vermont’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program and is continuing to increase that nuber.
Hanford said he understands that people need time to sort out their rental assistance, but this 60-day moratorium wasn’t necessary to give Vermonters that space.
“The eviction process in Vermont is rather lengthy, so there is still time for people to get assistance before eviction happens,” he said. “However, this will be quite a gut punch to a lot of landlords who have been providing housing without rent to pay bills without any certainty that they will have their day in court.”
The Vermont Landlords Association did not respond to a VTDigger inquiry before publication.
Although the state government has been steadily handing out money, Donnelly said, it hasn’t been happening very quickly.
“These dollars have been hard to get out the door,” he said.
Complicated paperwork, confusion about eligibility, lack of access to the online portal and the program’s income limits have all blocked money from getting into the hands of people who need it, Donnelly said.
“The best move for the health commissioner or the governor would be to extend the [state] moratorium for all renters in the state while we give time for the resources to get out and help people,” he said. “If there are resources available, we shouldn’t be evicting people for nonpayment. If it’s just an issue of not moving fast enough and we need more than 60 days, we should take it.”
