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- AOC is urging Biden to renew an eviction moratorium that's ending in eight days.
- "We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis," she said.
- Advocates are pressing for an extension because of rising virus cases and an ineffective stimulus relief program.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex of New York urged President Joe Biden to not allow a federal eviction moratorium to end in eight days, calling it a "reckless" move that would jeopardize the wellbeing of millions of Americans.
"I urge the Biden Administration to extend the CDC's eviction moratorium," she wrote on Twitter. "It is reckless not to extend the deadline when rental assistance funds have not gone out fast enough to protect people."
She noted new data indicated that many people at risk of eviction live in areas with rising COVID-19 infections.
"We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis," she said.
The Biden administration is poised to allow the eviction moratorium to lapse on July 31 after a final extension late last month. Yet advocates are pressing the White House to renew it past that date because a stimulus program aimed at providing rental relief has been slow to distribute aid. Only $3 billion in federal assistance has reached renters, or 6.5% of allocated aid.
Paul Williams, a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, projected that 80% of all households struggling with rental debt were in counties experiencing a surge of virus cases because of the Delta variant.
"Letting county courts kick people onto the street next week is probably the worst Delta variant strategy I can think of," he tweeted.