It had become a real subject of friction between Joe Biden and the left wing of the party.

US health authorities on Tuesday declared a new moratorium on tenant evictions until October, based on the risks to public health in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite a Supreme Court ruling going to misinterpretation.

"The emergence of the Delta variant has led to the rapid acceleration of contaminations in the United States, placing more Americans at greater risk, especially if they are not vaccinated," wrote the director of the Centers for Prevention and of Disease Control (CDC), US Federal Public Health Agency, Rochelle Walensky.

"This moratorium is the right thing to do so that people stay at home and not in gathering places where Covid-19 is spreading," she explained.

This moratorium will run until October 3.

Legal battle in sight

Even if it risks being challenged in court, it will "probably leave extra time" to pay tenants funds allocated as early as February by Congress to help them pay their rents, President Joe Biden has hoped from the White House .

In particular, bureaucratic reasons slow down these payments considerably.

Only $ 3 billion have thus been distributed to tenants in difficulty, out of a total envelope of $ 46 billion, of which 25 billion have already been sent to states and local communities.

A previous moratorium put in place in September 2020 by the CDC expired on July 31.

A Supreme Court ruling in June stipulated that an extension should be passed by Congress, not decided by the CDC.

A former homeless woman at the front

Anger against the president, accused of not having found a solution in time, had been raging for days in the left wing of the Democratic Party.

House politician Cori Bush, who was herself homeless, had been camping in front of the Capitol, the seat of Congress in Washington, since Friday calling on Congress and the White House to act without further delay while 11 million people were threatened with evictions.

Grateful.

pic.twitter.com/IO0nCLDQ1i

- Cori Bush (@CoriBush) August 3, 2021

"Today, our movement has moved mountains," Cori Bush tweeted Tuesday, welcoming the news of the new moratorium on the steps of the Capitol, accompanied in particular by the young elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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