GOP lawmakers embrace tenant protection as mass evictions loom
Republican lawmakers, alarmed at the prospect of a nationwide wave of evictions as the coronavirus batters the U.S. three months before the election, are starting to back the move to provide rental assistance to tenants.
A growing number of Republicans — including the powerful chair of the Senate Banking Committee — want the party's leadership to include a renewal of a federal eviction moratorium, which expired July 25, and rental assistance payments in the next economic relief package. And the White House is floating the possibility of an executive order extending the ban.
The change comes as red states dealing with new outbreaks of the virus are staring down the possibility of a rash of evictions in the coming months. Republicans have refused to take up Democratic bills extending the moratorium into 2021 and offering billions of dollars in assistance.
Forty-eight percent of renter households in Texas cannot pay their full rent and are at risk of eviction, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the consulting firm Stout Risius Ross. Forty-five percent of Florida tenants are in the same boat, as are 39 percent of Arizona tenants. All three states voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
As pressure mounts for Washington to step in, Trump administration officials held a call Tuesday afternoon to discuss options for both preventing evictions and providing rental assistance. Officials from the Office of the White House Counsel, the National Economic Council and the Department of Housing and Urban Development participated in the call, according to an administration official.
Senate Banking Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) on Tuesday confirmed that rental assistance is on the table in congressional negotiations over the next package. He called for a narrower approach than that taken by House Democrats, who have passed two bills providing $100 billion to help tenants meet their payments.
“Rental assistance needs to be much more focused on those who are impacted by Covid rather than across the board,” Crapo told reporters, adding that he supports the “general approach” of providing assistance.
Crapo on Friday asked HUD and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to extend existing housing protections as Congress hashes out the next package. He urged the housing regulators to extend bans on foreclosures and evictions and to extend forbearance measures for multifamily properties backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Other lawmakers have expressed support for extending the eviction moratorium. National Low Income Housing Coalition President and CEO Diane Yentel, who has been in touch with lawmakers during the negotiations, estimates that close to a dozen Republicans now support tenant protections being included in the next package.
Extending the ban is “something we’ve discussed within the Republican conference,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told POLITICO. Young hasn't said that he supports extending the moratorium but is open to negotiation.
“There are Republicans like myself that understand that this is going to be a real challenge going forward, and we need to at once make sure that people are able to stay in their houses, for businesses to stay in their particular locations, but we also need to be sensitive to the business needs of the landlords,” Young said.
“So if we can get the two groups together, I think we can come up with a responsible package that will be satisfactory, at least for the next couple of months, for all the stakeholders involved,” he added.
The eviction moratorium, part of the $2 trillion CARES Act passed by Congress in March, covers the roughly one in four rental units in the country that belong to buildings with federally-backed mortgages.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) did not explicitly express support for extending the eviction ban.
