Trump claimed his executive order would prevent removals during COVID-19 epidemic

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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised that his administration will not allow removals during the coronavirus epidemic. But, he claimed that an executive order would solve the problem and it doesn’t prevent millions of Americans from being at risk of losing their homes. The housing advocacy groups and tenant organizations have indicated that eviction moratoriums are lifting across the United States and millions of out-of-work. Americans are vulnerable to losing their housing. President Trump was emphatic in his claim on Wednesday that renters are not going to be evicted because of his executive order. He delivered his words a day earlier and said, “We are stopping evictions. We’re not going to let that happen. We’re not going to evict people. We are not letting people be evicted”.

Point to be noted that the National Low Income Housing Coalition has called the order an empty shell of promises to renters. The organization issued a statement and said, “His order does nothing to prevent evictions and homelessness and acts only to mislead renters into believing that they are protected when they are not. This executive order is reckless and harmful, offering false hope and risking increased confusion and chaos at a time when renters need assurance that they will not be kicked out of their homes during a pandemic”. The housing organization also predicted that at least 40 million renters could be at risk of eviction by the end of 2020 without any significant relief, as the US endures double-digit unemployment, a worrying Covid-19 infection rate, and rising deaths.

It is noteworthy that tenant organizations and housing groups have resisted local efforts to re-open eviction courts with a cancel rent mantra. The legislators are battling each other to prevent landlords from removing tenants due to nonpayment. The Lincoln Project also targeted the president’s failure to prevent evictions. House Democrats passed 2 measures with up to $100 billion for rental assistance, but the Republican-dominated Senate hasn’t agreed to take up the legislation. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has urged the president to work with Congress to put in place a national moratorium on all evictions with at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance and housing vouchers, and another $11.5 billion for emergency resources for people experiencing homelessness.