Landlords of Alameda County: How an eviction ban stole one couple’s American Dream
In Alameda County, California, a pandemic-era eviction ban has been in place for almost three years, even though COVID no longer poses the same threat it once did. As a result, "mom and pop" landlords have found themselves losing their livelihoods and dealing with problematic, and sometimes violent, tenants with no way to get rid of them, and wi ...
November At Stake: PLF challenges endless lawless eviction moratoriums in California
When Sheanna and Karl Rogers learned an acquaintance needed a place to stay, they had the perfect answer: a studio rental apartment. It was a bonus living space in their Alameda County, California, home where they also ran a small residential facility for the mentally disabled. “It was supposed to be temporary, until he could […]
The future is the past: New York and “good cause” eviction
In 1905, the philosopher George Santayana famously said, "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." Maybe that explains why some people are so nostalgic and want to repeat the time a half-century ago when landlords were abandoning between 21,0000 and 50,000 apartments a year throughout New York City. In 1976, a New York T ...
The CDC’s eviction moratorium has ended—what exactly does this mean for renters and landlords?
When the Supreme Court ended the nationwide eviction moratorium, media outlets were filled with dire predictions. Millions of American families and their belongings would be tossed unceremoniously into the streets, they said. The newly homeless would overrun shelters and create new hotspots of COVID-19. Alarmists seemed to imagine heartless land ...
Supreme Court sides with landlords and PLF, secures an injunction against CDC’s eviction moratorium
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, affirming what Pacific Legal Foundation has argued on behalf of landowners for nearly a year—that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacked the constitutional authority to enforce its nationwide eviction mo ...
Supreme Court issues thorough rebuke of unlawful CDC eviction moratorium
Washington, D.C.; August 26, 2021: The Supreme Court today reinstated a district court decision holding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide eviction moratorium unlawful. In Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, the Court made clear that the CDC had far exceeded the authority Congress granted it in a 1944 […]
Louisiana landlords ask 5th Circuit to block eviction moratorium
Monroe, Louisiana; August 18, 2021: A group of Louisiana landlords asked for an immediate injunction against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide eviction moratorium while the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals considers an appeal from the landlords. Despite assurances made to the U.S. Supreme Court that the moratorium wouldn’t be extended, multiple admissions […]
CDC renews unlawful eviction moratorium
Washington, D.C.; August 4, 2021: Late yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new moratorium on evictions, despite a half-dozen court opinions against the CDC and a warning by the Supreme Court that the agency was likely overstepping its authority. “The new eviction moratorium is virtually identical to the previous moratorium—and it’s […]
The Hill: COVID-19 eviction bans expose deeper hostility toward property ownership
What would you think if the government dictated that you won't be paid for more than a year but you must keep working? As unlikely as you might consider such a scenario, this hypothetical is Howard Iten's reality. Iten, a commercial landlord in Los Angeles, is under Los Angeles County's pandemic-driven mandate to continue running his business wh ...