Late Thursday, the six conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a federal moratorium on evictions in an "emergency" order, ruling from the shadow docket. By Friday morning, dozens of families at the Catherine Street Apartments in Starkville, Mississippi, were answering the door to receive their eviction notice—they had until Tuesday to move out. Sunday night, Hurricane Ida reached Mississippi, with Starkville directly in its path.
Judge Marty Haugh was expected to sign the removal order for the Catherine Street Apartments Monday morning, and all the tenants, including T. Young, her boyfriend and their four children—ages 11, 9, 7, and 1 month—will lose their homes on Tuesday. "At this point, we don't know where we're going next," Young said. In this case, they aren't being evicted for back rent: The entire complex of 61 apartments is going to receive desperately needed renovations, and tenants report atrocious living conditions. But the renovations are probably not for the benefit of tenants like Young and her family. Starkville is a college town, and Mississippi State University students will likely be able to pay higher rents in a newly renovated complex.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill told the Mississippi Free Press that the evictions couldn't be stopped. "These folks who own the apartments have gone through the proper legal process, and the judge has rendered the eviction notice," Spruill said. "They have been through the court system and, as far as I can tell, (the residents) have had proper notice." There will be storm shelters for these families and all the others facing immediate eviction in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. But where there's a silver lining of shelter, there's the doom of the COVID-19 delta variant.
The purpose of the eviction moratorium from the Centers for Disease Control was to keep people in safe environments, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained in a statement extending the moratorium earlier this month. "This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads. It is imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse." Mass evictions such as this one in Starkville.
"Throughout the United States, counties with the highest proportion of crowded households have experienced COVID-19 mortality rates 2.6 times those of counties with the lowest proportion of crowded households," the CDC explained in the order, which was revised from the previous eviction moratorium to apply only to the most at-risk parts of the country. That includes the southern states that are all getting hammered by Ida, and have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
These states are also far behind the rest of the country in distributing rental assistance. Mississippi has received $200 million so far in federal rental assistance from COVID-19 relief funds. It's paid out $18.6 million, which is a higher percentage than most red states. Sixteen states, including Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi have disbursed less than 5% of the funds available. Louisiana has made more of an effort to get that funding out.
Last Friday, Jason Knowling of Gulfport, Mississippi, didn't know where he was going to go with his two kids. He hasn't been able to pay his $795 in rent since May, because of illness, lost pay, and a broken-down car. He applied for that assistance, but hasn't been able to get the documentation he needs from a former employer to complete the application and get the money. "I don't know what the heck's about to go on," he told The Wall Street Journal. "I've got to figure out something, what I'm going to do with my family, man. We're about to be in a hurricane."
On top of a raging pandemic and on top of the massive hurricane turned tropical storm comes the radical Supreme Court.
In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer noted the problem with the court issuing this emergency order without hearing oral arguments. "These questions call for considered decision-making, informed by full briefing and argument," he wrote. "Their answers impact the health of millions. We should not set aside the C.D.C.'s eviction moratorium in this summary proceeding."
"[T]he public interest is not favored by the spread of disease or a court's second-guessing of the CDC's judgment," Breyer wrote. The six conservatives—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—are happy to believe they have wisdom enough to overrule the CDC, and to direct President Joe Biden's foreign policy and put people to death—all from behind closed doors, without putting their names to their work.
Now they're likely to have the blood of dozens, possibly hundreds, of people on their hands, forcing millions of people out of their homes—as many as 11 million who are behind on their rent.
Judge Marty Haugh was expected to sign the removal order for the Catherine Street Apartments Monday morning, and all the tenants, including T. Young, her boyfriend and their four children—ages 11, 9, 7, and 1 month—will lose their homes on Tuesday. "At this point, we don't know where we're going next," Young said. In this case, they aren't being evicted for back rent: The entire complex of 61 apartments is going to receive desperately needed renovations, and tenants report atrocious living conditions. But the renovations are probably not for the benefit of tenants like Young and her family. Starkville is a college town, and Mississippi State University students will likely be able to pay higher rents in a newly renovated complex.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill told the Mississippi Free Press that the evictions couldn't be stopped. "These folks who own the apartments have gone through the proper legal process, and the judge has rendered the eviction notice," Spruill said. "They have been through the court system and, as far as I can tell, (the residents) have had proper notice." There will be storm shelters for these families and all the others facing immediate eviction in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. But where there's a silver lining of shelter, there's the doom of the COVID-19 delta variant.
The purpose of the eviction moratorium from the Centers for Disease Control was to keep people in safe environments, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained in a statement extending the moratorium earlier this month. "This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads. It is imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse." Mass evictions such as this one in Starkville.
"Throughout the United States, counties with the highest proportion of crowded households have experienced COVID-19 mortality rates 2.6 times those of counties with the lowest proportion of crowded households," the CDC explained in the order, which was revised from the previous eviction moratorium to apply only to the most at-risk parts of the country. That includes the southern states that are all getting hammered by Ida, and have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
These states are also far behind the rest of the country in distributing rental assistance. Mississippi has received $200 million so far in federal rental assistance from COVID-19 relief funds. It's paid out $18.6 million, which is a higher percentage than most red states. Sixteen states, including Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi have disbursed less than 5% of the funds available. Louisiana has made more of an effort to get that funding out.
Last Friday, Jason Knowling of Gulfport, Mississippi, didn't know where he was going to go with his two kids. He hasn't been able to pay his $795 in rent since May, because of illness, lost pay, and a broken-down car. He applied for that assistance, but hasn't been able to get the documentation he needs from a former employer to complete the application and get the money. "I don't know what the heck's about to go on," he told The Wall Street Journal. "I've got to figure out something, what I'm going to do with my family, man. We're about to be in a hurricane."
On top of a raging pandemic and on top of the massive hurricane turned tropical storm comes the radical Supreme Court.
In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer noted the problem with the court issuing this emergency order without hearing oral arguments. "These questions call for considered decision-making, informed by full briefing and argument," he wrote. "Their answers impact the health of millions. We should not set aside the C.D.C.'s eviction moratorium in this summary proceeding."
"[T]he public interest is not favored by the spread of disease or a court's second-guessing of the CDC's judgment," Breyer wrote. The six conservatives—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—are happy to believe they have wisdom enough to overrule the CDC, and to direct President Joe Biden's foreign policy and put people to death—all from behind closed doors, without putting their names to their work.
Now they're likely to have the blood of dozens, possibly hundreds, of people on their hands, forcing millions of people out of their homes—as many as 11 million who are behind on their rent.