Here’s what the new eviction moratorium means for Kansas City renters and landlords
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Evictions in Kansas City
A new federal eviction moratorium was issued through Oct. 3 after housing activists and some politicians demanded the government do more to help more renter across the country as the pandemic grinds on. The previous moratorium ended July 31. Here’s what Kansas Citians need to know.
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Though some evictions in Jackson County have been halted as the result of a new eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which took effect Aug. 3, a local advocacy group says the step by the federal government isn’t enough.
The new order was issued three days after a moratorium that began in September expired. It applies to parts of the country experiencing substantial and high risk of COVID-19 transmission, temporarily halting evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions. This includes every county in Missouri.
The order covers tenants or residents who indicate to their landlord that they have “used best efforts” to obtain rental or housing assistance from the government and who either made no more than $99,000 in 2020 or expect to make no more than $99,000 in 2021, according to the CDC.
The federal policy was initially penned by the Trump administration. Tara Raghuveer, director of KC Tenants, said the Biden administration missed an opportunity to rewrite it to include all evictions.
Under the moratorium, evictions not related to non-payment of rent will continue.
“Every eviction is an act of violence,” Raghuveer tweeted Tuesday. “Not just now. Not just till October or another arbitrary date. Not just rent related evictions during a pandemic.”
Since the original CDC Order went into effect, there have been 1,091 judgments in Jackson County without writs — which would evict the tenant — from September 4, 2020 through July 20, 2021, according to court data.
“This is really devastating for both the landlords and the tenants,” said Robert Long, president of Landlords Inc., adding that the decision by the White House requires landlords to bear the burden of the pandemic even longer.
The longer the moratorium is in place, he said, the more small business landlords risk leaving the market. The domino effect, he said, is increased rent.
“We don’t see this as a war between [landlords] and our tenants,” Long said. “We understand that we both have to be able to succeed to do what we need to for the other.”
The moratorium doesn’t halt all evictions
The expiration of the previous moratorium could have led to hundreds of evictions in Kansas City and St. Louis. There have been more than 4,100 eviction cases filed in Jackson County between September 2020 and June 2021.
Of the 2,390 eviction cases filed in Jackson County court in the first half of this year, there were 656 writs for housing evictions — the legal process that activates an eviction — issued by the Civil Records Department and 294 actual evictions executed, according to court data.
Raghuveer and other advocates are scheduled to speak with members of the White House’s domestic policy council on Wednesday to urge them to make the new moratorium retroactive so those who received judgments on Monday or Tuesday can either have them or have their cases stayed.
The KC Tenants leader has encouraged local officials to take steps toward the proposed People’s Housing Trust Fund, which the tenants rights group has touted as a plan to give power to the people, and “ensure that people come before profit.” Nationally, a coalition of tenant organizations are working towards a National Tenants’ Bill of Rights.
Politicians across the county have increasingly heard from activists like Raghuveer who sounded the alarm in defense of the millions of people across America who are at risk of losing their housing.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced the partial moratorium on evictions Tuesday following a Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s five-day protest outside the U.S. Capitol and promises of nationwide protests by Black religious leaders.
Bush, a freshman Democratic congresswoman from St. Louis who experienced homelessness as a young mother, had been leading a protest outside the Capitol since Friday evening, calling for reinstatement of the national moratorium on evictions that expired on Saturday.
Bush and colleagues slept outside the Capitol each night in an effort to pressure Biden’s administration to revive the moratorium — despite a June Supreme Court ruling — and to compel House leadership to cancel the August recess to pass a legislative fix.
Raghuveer said the new moratorium is a evidence that “when people in power tell you that something is impossible, more often than not, that is not actually the case.”
Cumbersome renters assistance creates more barriers
Tuesday’s eviction ban was announced as the coronavirus’ delta variant spreads and states continue to be slow to release federal rental aid.
Long, with Landlords Inc., said his organization represents more than 400 housing providers across Kansas City. Most, he said, are small business landlords living in the area who can’t bear the cost burden of a moratorium like an out-of-state corporate landlord can.
“It’s not the housing provider’s job to house the citizens for free,” Long said.
He said there are landlords in the metro who’ve gone nearly a year and a half without being paid all their rent while still having to pay property taxes and insurance. As a result, he said, some landlords have sold their properties because they could no longer afford their mortgage.
“They have bills to pay, and without getting income, it’s really hard to do that,” Long said, adding that while rental assistance exists, the application process is cumbersome for renters, and the funds are slow to arrive.
So far, Missouri has distributed less than 10% of its rental assistance funds, Raghuveer said.
She called tenants assistance a “bureaucratic nightmare,” adding that she doubts will be resolved come October, when the moratorium lifts.
Correction: This story has been updated to clearly reflect only certain evictions that result from failure to pay rent are currently banned under the federal moratorium. Judges must follow the guidelines of the moratorium handed down to them.
The Star’s Cortlynn Stark, McClatchy DC Bureau’s Bryan Lowry and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 3:24 PM.
