Preliminary data shows that eviction filings increased in cities that did not have housing protections in place after the federal moratorium was lifted.
Updated on Tue, April 26, 2022 by the USAFacts Team
Home / Government / Articles / What happened after the federal eviction moratorium expired?More than a million renters avoided eviction in 2021 due to expanded legal protections enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan. Now that the federal eviction moratorium is lifted, housing-insecure Americans are more likely to be evicted.
According to data from the Census, the US saw at least 1.5 million fewer eviction filings while the moratorium was in effect.
A provision of the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act prevented landlords from evicting their tenants during the pandemic. The initial eviction moratorium ended in July 2020.
In September 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) imposed its own nationwide temporary federal moratorium on residential evictions. According to the CDC, the goal of the moratorium was to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and reduce homelessness and overcrowded housing due to evictions. The moratorium was extended several times by the CDC until the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional on Aug. 26. The court’s majority opinion said the CDC’s authority to prevent the spread of infectious diseases didn’t extend to the halting of evictions.
Eviction filings increased immediately after the CDC moratorium ended, according to data from the Census.
Census data from 31 cities and six states showed eviction cases increased the first two months after the moratorium’s end and decreased in the third month. Still, there were 37% fewer evictions from August through November than the historical pre-pandemic average.
The end of the eviction restrictions affected some cities more than others. In cities where renter protections were in place, there were fewer evictions. But in cities with limited or no protections, evictions increased at a faster rate.