The proposed county eviction moratorium, which has been before the council for weeks, was up for final action Tuesday night and appeared to have enough votes to pass.

But after a short discussion, the sponsor, Councilwoman Rita Days, agreed to hold it at the request of Republican Councilmen Tim Fitch and Mark Harder, who raised questions about its legality.

Days, a Democrat and council chair, said she would expedite a committee hearing, noting the clock is running out on tenants who already face eviction.

Even if the ordinance is enacted, it’s unclear whether the courts would go along with a local pause on evictions — a process governed by state law in Missouri.

“If they try to do this it will be completely and utterly unlawful,” Matthew Chase, a University City-based lawyer who represents landlords, told the Post-Dispatch before the County Council vote. “If (courts) decide to obey the dictates of a powerless County Council, then where does that leave me and my clients? We have a judge telling us we’re forbidden from enforcing Missouri law?”

But tenant advocates said local ordinances, including a similar bill being discussed in the city of St. Louis, were necessary to prevent a sharp increase in evictions that have been delayed during the pandemic. It’s unclear just how many people locally are at risk, but the Census Bureau’s most recent estimate said that nearly 121,000 Missourians face eviction or foreclosure over the next two months.

“It’s necessary because there is so much rental assistance money that has not been spent that would prevent a lot of evictions,” said Thomas “TJ” Pearson, an attorney at the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council. “Historically there has been no infrastructure for this type of system. To create that and maintain it is no easy task.”

Originally, the county ordinance was designed to complement the national moratorium on eviction proceedings instituted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling Thursday, found that the CDC exceeded its authority and overturned the national moratorium, which had been set to last until Oct. 3.

A local ordinance is likely to face the same vigorous opposition from property owners as did the national moratorium. Whether the St. Louis County Circuit Court, which on Friday rescinded its local moratorium following the Supreme Court ruling, would follow a county ordinance is unclear. A spokeswoman said the court wouldn’t comment on pending legislation.

“Local governments have a certain amount of ability to regulate occupancy and tenancy in their jurisdiction, but I’m not sure about overriding state law, which has to do with eviction proceedings,” said Mike Wolff, a retired Missouri Supreme Court judge and professor emeritus at St. Louis University’s School of Law. “I think it leaves it in really a matter of serious dispute.”

Even if it is challenged and ultimately overturned, the county eviction moratorium would potentially still achieve its desired effect — delaying eviction proceedings while the county and the state ramp up programs distributing millions in federal rental aid.

“An eviction moratorium buys us time to get more of our federal rental assistance funds out the door,” Page said in a Monday letter to the County Council. “While we are doing better than most parts of the country in helping those facing homelessness, the application process based on Treasury Department guidelines has made it difficult to get the funds out the door at the rapid-fire pace we would like.”

Buying time also appeared to be the Biden administration’s goal a month ago, when it reversed course on the CDC ban after saying its hands were tied by prior court rulings. The move, spurred in part by a dramatic sit-in on the Capitol steps by freshman U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of St. Louis, bought a few more weeks for states and local governments scrambling to build the infrastructure to distribute rental aid.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, top Biden administration officials in a Friday letter urged states and local governments to implement their own eviction moratoriums and to speed up their disbursement of rental aid, which has been slow across the country. Several states, including Illinois, have a statewide ban on evictions. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday extended that state’s ban until Oct. 3, the day the federal moratorium was set to end before last week’s court ruling. In Illinois, 126,000 faced eviction or foreclosure in the next two months — not much higher than Missouri, a state half its size.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen also is looking at a local moratorium ordinance in the city, but the board is on summer recess for the next two weeks. Aldermanic President Lewis Reed said it’s unlikely something will be passed before then, a window where evictions could begin to be executed by the St. Louis sheriff’s office. But Reed said aldermen can use the time to build consensus on legislation, crafting something defensible in the courts that can be passed soon after aldermen return.

“Local governments need to move forward with something whether it’s going to be challenged or not,” Reed said. “Hopefully, it’s something that can be upheld. So it’s going to take a little bit of time to wade through that, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Unspent federal aid

Through July, St. Louis’ rental relief program had spent about $2.1 million of the $9 million in federal funds it received, according to Treasury data. St. Louis County had spent just $4.6 million of the $29.7 million it received through July. Missouri had spent $45 million in rental assistance out of $324 million received.

“The city and the county have barely scratched the surface of the number of people waiting to receive this rental assistance,” said Rob Swearingen, an attorney with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri working with tenants facing eviction. “And when I say people, I mean both landlords and tenants.”

After losing her job last year when the Chesterfield outlet mall closed for the pandemic, Terri Blevins hopes the rental assistance can cover the $2,400 she needs to catch up on three months of back rent for her home near Walnut Park. She applied through St. Louis’ program and was told she’d hear back in three to four weeks.

“If I just had a chance to get on my feet and stay on my feet,” Blevins said, “I believe I could get caught up.”

Originally posted at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021