President Joe Biden's overwhelming decision to revive the eviction ban in response to intense pressure from progressives has angered and betrayed one of Washington's most influential economic coalitions on the edge of power.

Biden's move to reinstate a federal eviction moratorium on Tuesday after it had expired days earlier has been a major political loss to the National Association of Realtors and its housing allies, who shower millions in contributions each year, and often theirs, candidates from both parties Away in major political battles.

This time, apartment lobbyists said they had been excluded from discussions with the White House about the fate of the ban, which cost property owners billions in monthly losses. More than a dozen industrial trade groups were overwhelmed by an impromptu resistance campaign led by Representative Cori Bush (D-Mo.) And other recently elected progressive lawmakers protesting the phasing out of the ban on the Capitol steps. House Financial Services chairman Maxine Waters, California, a leading housing lawmaker who has received tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from brokers, dismissed her concerns when she also urged the eviction ban to be revived.

The industry has felt a "whirlwind," said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, whose group includes around 3,000 property managers affected by the original moratorium.

"It's certainly a slap in the face of the housing industry and the people protecting America," said Howard.

The eviction battle now on trial was the latest evidence of a left-wing shift in power among the Democrats that has resulted in some industry groups struggling to defend the interests of their members in Washington. In the event of evictions, lobbyists even had Biden's word that the ban was carried out only to abruptly withdraw the president.

Diane Yentel, a leading affordable housing attorney who worked to convince Biden to revive the ban, said brokers, home builders and housing associations have wasted millions of dollars and goodwill "in a public battle to enable landlords to struggle To evict tenants during an historic and fatal situation ". global pandemic. "

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"These trade associations put their members in the worst possible light while failing to achieve their goal of lifting the moratoria last year," said Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The National Association of Realtors – the most powerful group in the housing industry – is more than 100 years old and is headquartered just blocks from the Capitol. It has some of the deepest pockets in Washington and has spent nearly $ 700 million influencing politics since 1998, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. With spending, it just lags behind the US Chamber of Commerce.

With real estate interests in every district, the brokerage group is used to not being laid off easily. It successfully put pressure on lawmakers to maintain a tax deferral known as the equivalent swap in the 2017 Tax Reform Act, and in the same year stopped an attempt to revise the National Flood Insurance Program tariffs for homeowners. Carried interest is still in the tax code despite multiple attempts to kill it, in large part because it's important to real estate investment companies.

The association took the lead in combating the eviction moratorium after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first imposed it in September. About 28 percent of the group's 1.4 million members rent out properties, which means they would be prevented from kicking out tenants who have defaulted on renting under the ban. The CDC argued that the moratorium was needed to avert public health risks from people huddled in shelters or teaming up with friends and family during the pandemic.

The moratorium put financial distress for landlords who still had to pay their own bills, including mortgages, property taxes, and utilities.

"They don't get any income, but they still provide heat, electricity, air conditioning and water," said Howard.

Local chapters of the association sued at the end of last year to block the ban. The industry has also successfully campaigned for federal rental subsidies, which would help make landlords whole and keep renters in their homes, though only a fraction of the $ 46.5 billion, thanks to state and local bottlenecks on the intended ones Has arrived.

The industry's struggle seemed to bear fruit in late June. After the Biden government extended the moratorium for the last time – until July 31 – a Supreme Court ruling sparked by realtor lawsuits strengthened the legal battle against the ban. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in a 5-4 ruling, but Conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh said he only supported the ruling because of the impending expiration date. Kavanaugh warned that he believed the CDC had exceeded its legal authority by imposing the moratorium.

The Supreme Court ruling caused the Biden administration to announce on July 29 that it would let the moratorium expire three days later and that it would be up to Congress to renew it.

The last-minute announcement sparked a scramble by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to pass laws before MPs went on their August recess.

The push sparked fierce housing industry opposition, with 14 groups of property owners, developers and lenders calling on lawmakers to "end unsustainable nationwide restrictions on property operations" and instead focus on accelerating the distribution of rental subsidies.

The lobbying seemed to be paying off after more than a dozen Democrats in the House of Representatives privately opposed laws extending the ban and prevented it from getting a vote. But the episode also revealed a growing gap between apartment lobbyists and top Democrats.

"Now I know there is a lot of lobbying and the brokers have come and they put out a strong letter last night and some people just say, 'Oh my god, I don't want to piss the brokers,'" said Waters on July 30th when she tried to rally support for the ban.

Waters urged her colleagues not to be intimidated by interests she knew well. "You are on my committee, I work with you," she said, referring to her committee's responsibility for housing policy.

The Broker's PAC contributed nearly $ 2 million to House Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle, including $ 10,000 each to Waters and Pelosi.

After the shutdown at Hill, the White House held out for a few days. But Biden relented after facing heavy pressure from other Democrats to reverse course.

The CDC announced on Tuesday a so-called targeted eviction ban by the government, which would only apply to areas with high Covid-19 transmission – currently around 80 percent of the counties.

The process made landlords feel like "peasants" sacrificed to hold the Democratic faction together, said National Apartment Association President and CEO Bob Pinnegar.

Cindy Chetti, senior vice president of the National Multifamily Housing Council, said the odds were stacked against the industry as outrage over the expiration of the ban rose like a snowball.

"We did a lot of lobbying, we put the car in gear," said Chetti. "I'm not sure there was anything else we could have done. … I feel good that we did everything we could. "

The Alabama and Georgia sections of the Realtors' Association sued Wednesday to block the ban. The same groups led the lawsuit against the previous moratorium, which led the Supreme Court to question the authority of the CDC.

A spokesman for the brokers pointed to the abandoned vote in the House of Representatives last week when asked whether the group viewed the new eviction ban as a lobbying loss.

"When House leaders made efforts last week to legislate to extend the moratorium, our members reached out to Congress and made their voices heard," said Realtors spokesman Patrick Newton. "The votes in Congress never came about, which is why the issue is back on trial."

Some apartment lobbyists said they were angry to have been beaten by progressive upstart and affordable housing organizers in one of the most critical battles for their members in years. The reintroduction of the ban threatened to cause huge financial losses for landlords, including homeowners, who, according to lobbyists, live in almost every district.

"These people have kept their tenants on their own money for the past year and a half," said Howard of the Builders' Association. "And they are cast as villains."

source https://seapointrealtors.com/2021/08/08/lobbyists-fume-at-biden-eviction-reversal/

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