WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday the Trump administration was set to disclose details of an eviction moratorium later in the day.
Mnuchin told a U.S. House of Representatives panel the guidelines were to ensure people “don’t get thrown out of their rental homes” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mnuchin called the action a “real moratorium” and urged the U.S. Congress to provide rental assistance.
Mnuchin said the “significant actions” would impact “close to the 40 million renters.”
He added: “You will see rolled out … specific guidelines that I think you’ll appreciate are quite significant on allowing moratoriums for people who certify, that they can’t make their rental payments due to coronavirus related issues.”
In July, a firm estimated more than $21.5 billion in past-due rent is owed by Americans.
Over the spring and early summer, as unemployment surged to levels unseen since the aftermath of the 1930s Great Depression, a patchwork of federal, state and local eviction bans kept renters in homes who could not make payments.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill in May that would extend enhanced jobless aid through January and allocated $100 billion for rental assistance. It would also have extended the federal ban on evictions for up to one year.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Brown)
