PORT ARTHUR, Texas — As the CDC eviction ban is currently set to expire at the end of the month the Port Arthur ISD is holding a meeting to offer advice and assistance to renters.
The school district will hold the meeting via Zoom on Thursday , January 21, 2021 at 11 a.m. according to a post on the district's Facebook page.
The meeting will be available in English and Spanish according to the post.
The meeting is to explain the CDC Eviction Moratorium program extension as well as to talk about rent and utilities assistance among other programs that are available to help renters according o the post.
REGISTER | Sign up to attend the meeting here
Housing advocates around the country are calling on the incoming Biden administration to extend and strengthen the current federal ban on evictions.
President Donald Trump’s directive, implemented in September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was extended until the end of January.
Giving the pandemic is still ongoing, advocates argue tenants should have protection for the next several months and that they should be expanded beyond tenants facing eviction for not paying rent.
Bans on eviction were used early on in the pandemic by states and cities to keep tenants housed and and avoid a spike in homelessness. But with most of those expired, the federal ban is the only remaining protection preventing the more than 23 million renters from being evicted.
Expectations are high that one of the first things Joe Biden does when taking office will be extending that CDC eviction order. Advocates are also pressing him to include tens of billions of dollars in rental assistance in the next coronavirus relief bill. That would be on top of the $25 billion approved in the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress in December.
