The court's right-wing majority had already stated its intention to lift the eviction ban, which was set to expire on October 3 anyhow. The ruling by the unelected court marks a dramatic escalation of the corporate-financial oligarchy's class war policies, which are being pursued by all of its official institutions and parties, in the face of an out-of-control pandemic, surging housing costs and consumer prices, and the expiration of federal unemployment benefits set for early September.
According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the number of adults living in rent-delinquent homes could surpass 11 million.
According to Census Bureau data, 6% of renters nationwide—over 3.5 million people—say they are unable to pay their full rent because of the pandemic and are “likely” or “very likely” to be evicted. Almost one-fifth of tenants in numerous Southern and Midwestern states, including Missouri, North Carolina, and Louisiana, say they are concerned about being evicted.
In an article titled "Renters Prepare for Eviction After Supreme Court Ruling," the Wall Street Journal succinctly summarized the issue. It added that landlords can move to court right away to get evictions for unpaid rent, with the exception of a few states and towns that have their own rules. Cases of delayed eviction will now be heard in most courts. Evictions that have already been approved will now be carried out by marshals and sheriffs in other areas.
The ruling's heinousness was underscored by the fact that it was made under a rushed "shadow docket" method that omitted oral hearings, did not require signed opinions, and in general lowered due process norms.
The unsigned majority ruling held that the CDC had overstepped its legal authority by issuing the eviction prohibition on public health grounds, noting the increased risk of COVID-19 infections and deaths caused by an increase in homelessness. According to the court, the moratorium could not be kept in place without congressional action.
The dissent, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, criticized the use of the "shadow docket" system to consider such a socially important case, citing the pandemic's explosive expansion and the spread of the Delta variety. He essentially claimed that the eviction prohibition was being lifted at an unsuitable time, stating, "The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC's judgment at this time, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates."
The Biden administration, which had planned to accept the eviction ban's expiration at the end of July and has stated that it will not seek to prolong the federal unemployment benefit, has indicated that it will not appeal the court's decision. It and the Democratic Party are concentrating their efforts on driving millions of unvaccinated children and hundreds of thousands of teachers into dangerous schools, even as illnesses and deaths reach new highs, with school-age children experiencing the greatest increase.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration would not seek to adopt legislation to prevent evictions, preferring instead to streamline the disbursement of $46.5 billion in previously approved funds to help struggling renters and homeowners. As of the end of July, only about $5.1 billion of this money had been disbursed by states and localities, according to the Treasury Department. Renter relief monies have not been distributed in whole states, including New York.
Similarly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would endeavor to speed up the flow of rental-aid payments, but she made no mention of resuming evictions.
Even if the entire sum authorized were to be disbursed immediately, it would be a drop in the bucket in comparison to the severity of the housing problem. In response to the court decision, Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), predicted that “millions of people will lose their homes this fall and winter, just as the Delta variant ravages communities and lives.” She went on to say that "evictions put even more strain on already overburdened hospital systems, making it much more difficult for the country to contain the virus." Evictions have been demonstrated to enhance the spread of COVID-19, as well as the risk of death from it.”
According to a report released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in July titled "Out of Reach 2021: The High Cost of Housing," "no state, metropolitan area, or county can afford a modest two-bedroom rental home, and these workers cannot afford modest one-bedroom apartments in 93 percent of US counties." “Over 7.5 million extremely low-income renters are severely housing cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing,” according to the report.
“On any given night in 2020, more than 226,000 people in the United States experienced homelessness on sidewalks or other unsheltered locations, and another 354,000 experienced homelessness in emergency shelters, with limited ability to self-isolate,” according to the research. Furthermore, nearly 2.7 million tenants are housed in overcrowded conditions.”
According to a July NLIHC analysis, many people who have managed to stay current on their rent "may have done so through unsustainable means," such as "using credit cards or loans, selling assets or drawing down savings, or borrowing from friends and family..." The majority of individuals who were behind on their rent said they were delaying payments and cutting back on food, and more than a fifth said they had skipped medical care.
Furthermore, evictions persisted in many parts of the country long after the moratorium ended, which was inadequately enforced and routinely defied by right-wing courts. Last week, the Princeton University Eviction Lab tracked almost 6,500 evictions across six states and 31 cities. 480,000 eviction cases have been filed since March 2020. Some places, including Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gainesville, Florida, have already reached or exceeded pre-pandemic eviction levels.
“You hear a lot of people talk about this cliff that we're headed for as far as evictions,” John Jopling, director of housing law at the nonprofit Mississippi Center for Justice, told the Washington Post, “but really, I think it's more of a rolling tide—and we're already in the middle of it.”
“These tenants are going to end up in cars, on top of relatives, which is not what they should be doing, especially now in intergenerational households with all the COVID variants that are spreading out there,” says the expert. Because of the fast removal, they'll end up on top of elderly relatives.”
The Supreme Court's attack on hard-pressed working-class families coincided with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's address the next morning, highlighting the social and economic interests that drive government policy. Powell reassured Wall Street during his keynote address at the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming meeting of Fed officials and world central bankers that the flood of money into the financial markets through zero interest rates would continue indefinitely, and that any tapering of quantitative easing purchases of financial assets—currently at a rate of $120 billion per month—would be done slowly.
As a result, stock prices continued to rise, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes ending at new all-time highs.
