A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled to expire Saturday, after the Biden administration extended the original date by a month.
The moratorium, put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, was the only tool keeping millions of tenants in their homes. Many of them lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and had fallen months behind on rent.
Landlords successfully challenged the order in court, arguing they also had bills to pay. They pointed out that tenants could access nearly $47 billion in federal money set aside to help pay rents and related expenses.
But in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators agreed on a deal last month to extend the state's eviction moratorium until Sept. 30.
Nationwide, 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse Survey. The survey measures the social and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic every two weeks through online responses from a representative sample of U.S. households.