The Director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed an order to extend the eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021.

The most recent extension to the moratorium was set to expire on March 31.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health," the CDC said in a statement. "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."

Following the news of the extension, the White House announced a coordinated, multi-agency effort between the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to help support landlords and tenants during the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic.

The efforts being sought by the whole-of-government approach include the FTC and the CFPB monitoring and investigating eviction practices, and rental assistance being provided by the Treasury Department. The American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed into law by President Joe Biden, will provide $21.5 billion in emergency rental assistance "to help millions of families keep up on rent and remain in their homes."

Originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2020, the CDC’s moratorium on evictions was created to “prevent the further spread of COVID-19.” It has been challenged several times in federal court by landlord groups.

Researchers have found that evictions can indeed lead to increased transmission of — and death from — COVID-19. According to one study, expiring state and local eviction moratoriums led to more than 10,000 excess deaths between March 1 and Sept. 3.

But beyond merely extending the moratorium, housing advocates are urging for the order to be changed and better enforced. As it currently stands, the CDC’s order doesn’t adequately protect tenants from eviction, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition President and CEO Diane Yentel.

“The protections should be automatic,” Yentel told Spectrum News in a February interview. “It should apply to all renters, whether they know about the protection or not.”

Currently in order to seek protection under the order, tenants must submit a written declaration to their landlord, swearing under penalty of perjury that they have been financially impacted by the coronavirus and have made their best efforts to seek governmental assistance. 

But since there’s no entity or individual responsible for enforcing the CDC order, individuals are being left to interpret it largely on their own. That means little accountability for tenants and landlords alike who choose not to abide by the order’s directives. 

Local courts, too, have struggled to consistently interpret the order, a Spectrum News investigation found. And housing advocates say that lack of consistency is coming from the very top.

“The federal government has done almost nothing to publicize how the moratorium works in practice and the steps that the tenant has to go through,” National Housing Law Project executive director Shamus Roller told Spectrum News in an interview earlier this month.

“Actually accessing the rights under the CDC order is very difficult to do without the assistance of an attorney, because of how complicated it all is,” Roller said.

Molly Duerig is a Report for America corps member who is covering Affordable Housing for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.