Millions of people are not at risk for eviction/foreclosure after a federal judge vacated the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Eviction Moratorium. Judge Dabney Friedrich says the CDC exceeded its authority with the temporary ban. "The question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not," she wrote.
The moratorium was put into place in September 2020 to help citizens affected by the global pandemic stay in their homes. This decision does not affect eviction freezes made at state and local levels.
In Virginia, there is currently no eviction freeze put into place. The federal ban protected citizens of VA
This ban is beneficial to landlords, but what about tenants? As it stands, there are too few shelters to assist people in need. This lift would put countless numbers of families at risk. In court docs, the federal judge also acknowledged this saying:
"The Court recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious public health crisis that has presented unprecedented challenges for public health officials and the nation as a whole. The pandemic has triggered difficult policy decisions that have had enormous real-world consequences. The nationwide eviction moratorium is one such decision."
More updates to come.