July 30, 2021
Dear Representative:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the undersigned organizations, we urge you to support H.R. 4791, the Protecting Renters from Evictions Act of 2021. H.R. 4791 would extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) federal moratorium on evictions, currently set to expire on July 31, until December 31, 2021.
After months of declining COVID-19 infections nationwide, many experts have linked the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus to a staggering increase in new cases in just the past several weeks. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky recently stated that “the Delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains. It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, and that I have seen in my 20-year career.”
This growth in new cases comes at a time when, according to the Census Pulse Survey, 6.5 million households are behind on rent. While Congress recently allocated $46.6 billion in rental assistance, only a fraction of those funds has reached struggling families. State and local governments simply need more time to get rental assistance programs on their feet.
According to research cited by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the previous lapses in eviction moratoriums during the course of the pandemic have been associated with 433,700 cases of COVID-19 and 10,700 deaths. For the marginalized and low-income communities we represent, including frontline workers and people of color, the CDC moratorium has been a literal lifeline — and as much as we all had hoped for a greater sense of normalcy at this point, now is not the time to take it away.
As such, we strongly urge you to vote in favor of H.R. 4791. If you have any questions, please contact Rob Randhava, senior counsel, at randhava@civilrights.org.