White House Hosts Eviction Prevention Summit; Supreme Court Leaves Eviction Moratorium In Place, but Signals An End
On Tuesday, The Supreme Court handed down a narrow 5-4 decision to keep the eviction mortarium in-place, allowing its expiration on July 31. The case, Alabama Association of Realtors v. HHS, landlords and realtors requested the Supreme Court lift the moratorium. In the 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh crossed over to vote with the three liberal justices and denied this request — leaving the protections in place until end of July. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a brief opinion, stating, “I agree with the District Court and the applicants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its existing statutory authority by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium…Because the CDC plans to end the moratorium in only a few weeks, on July 31, and because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds, I vote at this time to deny the application to vacate the District Court’s stay of its order…In my view, clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation) would be necessary for the CDC to extend the moratorium past July 31.”
This week, the Biden Administration also hosted a summit on eviction prevent. According to the Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, “the White House hosted a virtual Eviction Prevention Summit to support and facilitate coordination among local public officials, court officials, legal services — legal service organizations, local bar associations, community-based organizations, emergency rental assistance administrators, and local philanthropies from cities across the country to work on developing local eviction prevention action plans…This summit is just one of a number of steps we are taking — that we announced last week, I should say — to keep people in their homes by protecting renters and helping state and local governments prevent evictions.” NAHMA staff joined the first hour of the virtual summit.
A White House read-out on the summit is available HERE.
House Approves FY22 USDA Funding Bill
As congressional action begins for fiscal year 2022 federal funding, the House Appropriations Committee has approved the fiscal year 2022 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. The bill includes several proposed increases to USDA’s rural housing programs. Section 515, rental housing direct loan program, the House bill keeps the previous year’s funding level at $40 million. For Section 521 rural rental assistance, the House bill provides $1.45 billion, an increase of $75 million. Like the administration’s budget proposal, the House bill would raise funding for Section 502 direct and guaranteed mortgage loans, and self-help housing. While the budget would increase the Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization (MPR) program to $32 million from $28 million in FY21, the House bill would provide a far larger boost, to $65 million. The House would also grow the Section 504 grant program for elderly low-income homeowners and the Section 533 Housing Preservation Grants program. The House bill retains several provisions that are in current appropriations law but were dropped in the administration’s budget. These call for incentives to nonprofits to preserve rental housing, reuse of recaptured Rental Assistance (RA), and use of recaptured RA from farmworker housing in other farmworker housing when possible. Like the budget, however, it eliminates a provision from the FY20 and FY21 appropriations laws that allowed property owners to request RA contracts with 20-year terms.
The House legislation would also invests over $907 million, an increase of $165 million above the FY 2021 enacted level, in the expansion of broadband service to provide economic development opportunities and improved education and healthcare services. This includes $800 million for the ReConnect program. These significant investments in broadband allows rural communities to access digital tools necessary to improve health, educational, and economic outcomes. The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee reviewed the draft bill at a mark-up on June 25, with the full House Appropriations Committee voting to approve it on June 30. The Senate has not yet begun its appropriations process.
A summary of the bill is here. The text of the bill, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is available here.
Torres Small Nominated for Under Secretary for Rural Development
President Biden has nominated Xochitl Torres Small, formerly a member of Congress from New Mexico, to serve as USDA’s Under Secretary for Rural Development. Torres Small, a Democrat from Las Cruces, represented New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district for a single term from 2019 to 2021. She was the first woman and first person of color to represent her congressional district. Her previous experience included economic development in rural communities and colonias in New Mexico, and serving as an attorney focused on water issues before winning a seat in Congress. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Torres Small raised the alarm on broadband disparities, serving on Majority Whip James Clyburn’s Rural Broadband Taskforce and as an original cosponsor of the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, Torres Small helped build the case for dairy farmers harmed by Canada’s violation of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, and drafted legislation to help local farmers and rural communities invest in infrastructure to navigate new markets. Torres Small also partnered with Senator Udall to introduce the Western Water Security Act, and helped secure key provisions of the legislation in the FY 2021 Appropriations Omnibus. She earned her International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma from Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Eswatini, and earned her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Rep. Pressley Introduces Tenant Empowerment Act
This week, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), introduced the Tenant Empowerment Act, which seeks to strengthen HUD tenant protections and provide tenants with the tools necessary to improve the quality of their homes. The bill would address ongoing issues with the physical condition of a tenants homes due to chronic underfunding, insufficient HUD oversight and enforcement, and lack of compliance with HUD requirements by some property owners. The legislation, if enacted, would enabling tenants living in project-based housing to hold their rent contribution in escrow if HUD determines a unit is in serious violation of safe housing standards with the option of a negotiated rent release if the project owner reaches measurable repairs benchmarks. The bill would also provide tenants with the right to judicial enforcement of project owner agreements with HUD to ensure they address serious violations of housing standards or repeated violations of other program requirements, including the rights of residents to organize. Tenants would also be allowed to participate in certain portions of HUD’s physical inspection and management review process.
A summary description of the Tenant Empowerment Act is available here.
To view the full bill text, click here.
Housing Bill Introduced for Survivors of Human Trafficking
U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Dick Durbin (D-IL), as well as U.S. Representatives Joyce Beatty (D-OH) and Ann Wagner (R-MO), introduced legislation that would commission a study reviewing current homelessness and housing services for survivors of trafficking. The Trafficking Survivors Housing Act of 2021 would require the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to commission a study and report in partnership with federal agencies, survivors, and the organizations that serve them on the availability and accessibility of homelessness and housing services for survivors of trafficking. The U.S. Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking reported that sustainable housing is a significant issue in achieving long-term recovery and self-sufficiency for human trafficking survivors. The study would review the effectiveness of current policy and procedures and report on the impact of such policies on the ability to provide sustainable, affordable, and safe housing options for survivors of trafficking, including families of minor victims and youth in foster care. The study would build on trauma-informed and evidence-based frameworks to assess the capacity of mainstream housing services to meet the distinct and specialized needs of both labor and sex trafficking survivors, including a survivors disability-related needs and would identify barriers to and best practices for meeting the housing and service needs of survivors of trafficking.
To view a summary of the Trafficking Survivors Housing Act, click here.
The full bill text can be viewed here.