NEW ORLEANS— The evictions moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signaled a bit of a reprieve for thousands of rental tenants across America, but the moratorium has also created a bit of confunsion.
Orleans Parish First City Clerk of Court Austin Badon said, “I don’t think it does what it was intended to do. I’m not trying to read anybody’s mind but, I think they were trying to stop evictions but it didn’t stop evictions in total.”
Someone can still be evicted for things like damaging property. What’s interesting about the order is that while the moratorium certainly affects renters and landlords financially, the CDC says they issued the order to to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
It’s an issue housing proponents have promoted.
“We been been really advocating that we think that eviction court should stay closed right now until we get the resources in place to take care of folks. It’s gonna be easier to keep folks stably housed, keep them protected and safe from the pandemic than create a massive homelessness problem which is far expensive and far more damaging to actually deal with in the long run,” according to Breonna DeDecker of the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative.
The CDC order may serve as a reprieve for tenants, it does the opposite for property owners.
Tammy Esponge of The Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans & Louisiana said, “Where are landlords going to get the money from to pay their mortgages, to pay their property taxes to pay their overhead, maintenance, repairing air conditioning, replacing air conditioners if we’re not collecting any rent?”
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Click here to read the CDC moratorium
