[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 140 (Thursday, August 5, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5892-S5893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EVICTION MORATORIUM

  Mr. SCHUMER. One final matter, evictions. Earlier this week, the 
Biden administration announced that the CDC will adopt an eviction 
moratorium to provide critical protections for another 60 days as our 
country continues its path towards full recovery.
  I applaud everyone who made it happen, from the President to the CDC, 
to Speaker Pelosi, to Senator Brown, as well as several of my 
Democratic colleagues in the House, including a brave band of New 
Yorkers, including Congress Member Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Jones. 
Above all, Representative Cori Bush gets huge credit--one person who 
changed things for tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of 
people, and everyone who stood with her as well.
  As I explained yesterday, while this moratorium is an important 
safeguard to protect millions of American families in danger of 
evictions, it is not the only piece of the puzzle. Once the moratorium 
comes to an end--whenever that is--there is still a fundamental 
challenge of making up for a year of lost rent and lost mortgage 
payments.
  Congress considered this problem very early this year. I pushed for, 
and we passed, along with Senator Brown and so many others, substantial 
rental and mortgage assistance in the American Rescue Plan.
  Unfortunately, State governments have been really uneven about 
distributing that crucial assistance. A few States--the State of 
Illinois, the State of Texas--have done a pretty good job, but many 
have not. Unfortunately, one of those that has done a very poor job 
distributing this money is my home State of New York.
  Simply put: State governments, especially New York, must do a better 
job of distributing the $47 billion Congress appropriated for emergency 
rental assistance. The money is there, but far too little has gone out 
the door.
  In New York specifically, Congress sent more than $2 billion to help 
renters in New York; and, inexplicably, some reports indicate less than 
0.5 percent of New York's allocation had been received by tenants and 
landlords as of a week ago.
  Today, I am sending a letter with colleagues in the New York 
delegation to the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability 
Assistance, calling on that office to hurry up to fix the inexcusable 
delays in rental assistance and immediately begin disbursing these 
funds.
  We need to understand why New Yorkers are having such trouble 
navigating the process to get the money they need. There have been 
reports of frustrating crashes and glitches on the online application 
process, confusing instructions, and very little support to help the 
applicants, even though the money has been there for several months.
  The clock is ticking to fix this mess. The State moratorium expires 
in less than a month, and the CDC's moratorium will give only one more 
month of protection after that. New York State needs to act quickly, 
and we expect a response by August 9 as to how we can

[[Page S5893]]

get a handle on these delays and, most importantly, get the money to 
New Yorkers faster so they can pay the rent.
  By the way, many landlords, particularly small landlords, depend on 
this as well. If you worked hard--let's say you are a bus driver and 
you own a three-family house. When the tenants in your house don't pay 
you, you don't have any cushion and you have to pay the mortgage. So 
this bill will help with that as well, this proposal.
  Right now, there are 6\1/2\ million Americans who are behind in their 
rent. According to the New York Times, over 400,000 renters in New York 
City alone owe a collective debt of $2 billion.
  Congress did its job by making sure that we have money in place to 
help these Americans avoid evictions. Now the States need to step it up 
to make sure that this money gets into the hands of renters as soon as 
possible.
  I yield the floor.

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