U.S. President Joe Biden extended a federal moratorium on foreclosures and mortgage forbearance policies Tuesday, giving more than 10 million homeowners behind payments while pending coronavirus outbreak has more months of support. the plunder of the US economy.
Biden’s news extends the moratorium on foreclosures by the end of June after it expires at the end of next month. The policy will also extend the mortgage legacy window to June 30 and provide up to six months of additional mortgage payment relief to the 2.7 million Americans who already receive it, the White House said in a statement .
Not everyone is covered under the policies announced Tuesday, however. The current normalization program only applies to Americans who have government-backed mortgages – about 70 percent of single-family home mortgages.
Forgiveness allows homeowners to stop or reduce their mortgage payments for a period of time, but does not forgive their own debts. Homeowners will still be responsible for back payments when the conviction period ends.
The policy is designed to keep Americans in their homes at a time when public health experts have warned that a wave of evictions and foreclosures could exacerbate COVID-19 transmission.
Eviction moratoriums between mid-March and early September resulted in an estimated 433,700 additional COVID-19 cases and 10,700 deaths nationwide, researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, School of Law found Wake Forest University, University of California, Los Angeles. , and the University of California, San Francisco.
Their paper examined eviction moratoriums and COVID-19 cases from March 15 to September 3 in 44 states, including 27 states that lifted their moratoriums during that period. The study is awaiting peer review.
People with private market mortgages do not deserve the relief announced Tuesday, which is why Biden has proposed a $ 10bn Home Owners Support Fund as part of its $ 1.9 trillion incentive package. The package would also extend both eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, as well as mortgage bequest programs, to September 30. It would also provide $ 30bn in rent and utility support for small tenants and landlords.
Biden’s stimulus plan is still making its way through Congressional committees, and Democrats have vowed to pass even without Republican support.
Despite the federal moratorium on evictions at the time of the coronavirus pandemic, tenants have continued to lose homes, such as this one with Sheriff’s messengers going to evict evictions. in Los Angeles, California in January [File: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters]
One in five tenants are currently behind rent payments, the White House said, and the current eviction moratorium expires March 31. Tenant protection was not part of Tuesday’s announcement.
Keeping Americans at home is a top priority for Biden and Finance Secretary Janet Yellen, who has called back the 2007-2009 economic downturn – which has seen a wave of complaints – as evidence of what happens that the government will not provide enough incentive to help the economy recover fully.
Like the downturn in the economy, the current crisis has not affected homeowners equally. Announcing Tuesday’s extended foreclosure moratorium and forbearance policies, the White House said homeowners need emergency support and “make up an unfair proportion of lenders with obscene loans and loans in a legacy due to COVID-related hardship ”.
In bidding for Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion administration plan, Yellen has already made a big impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Americans of color – and has urged him to do more “to do this pandemic is certainly not a further generational prevention. race equality ”.
Color tenants are also struggling at a higher level: 30 percent of black tenants, 22 percent of Asian tenants, and 21 percent of Latino tenants said they were behind on rent payments , compared to 12 percent of white tenants, the center is neutral. on Budget and Policy Priorities identified. Together, American tenants have $ 25bn in rent repayments.
The pandemic has been exacerbated in the housing system. Even before the crisis, more than half of Black and Latino people were burdened with the cost of housing – defined as spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing – compared to 42 percent of households Asian and white, according to Harvard University Studies Joint Housing Center.
And despite the federal moratorium on evictions, tenants have continued to lose their homes during the pandemic. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, landlords have filed for 245,999 evictions in the five states and 27 cities that have undergone a Princeton University Eviction Lab.
Because protections and relief are not provided automatically and must be applied for, many homeowners and tenants who may be eligible for support are not currently receiving support, the House said. White Tuesday, which is why Biden’s administration sent out a centralized cleaning house to help relieve housing through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.