The current national moratorium on evictions (which is likely to be extended yet again) is problematic for several reasons. The CDC (of all agencies) issued its rule without any particular act of Congress granting it the power to do so under the auspices of a generic “public health and safety” threat. What’s more, the federal eviction ban essentially overtakes any and all existing laws between tenants and landlords at the state level.
Because of the moratorium, landlords are now unable to follow any due process it has with regard to removing a tenant who has not kept up his or her end of their housing contract. Furthermore, landlords have no recourse to replace or remove a tenant by legal means until the end of the moratorium, a date which keeps changing. If a landlord violates the moratorium, he faces fines and/or possible jail time.
But perhaps the most egregious aspect of the eviction moratorium is that landlords are still responsible for maintaining payments to their banks and mortgage lenders on their rental properties. In fact, in some parts of the country, lenders have the ability to foreclose on them because they are not owner-occupied residences. What if the government told grocery store owners they had to provide their food for free as a means to alleviate hunger? Or tell a doctor he has to treat people for free as a means to provide universal access to medical services. How is it that the government is allowed to tell one set of citizens that you cannot enforce your own contracts and must provide services for free, while simultaneously not providing any sort of restitution for the hardship?
This moratorium has created intense and immediate deprivation for property owners who now bear the burden of property ownership without means to carry out or modify existing rental contracts. Essentially, the government is engaging in a massive, unconstitutional wealth transfer from one constituent to another. The eviction moratorium is a blatantly unconstitutional abuse of power.