June 01, 2021: -Over 11 million Americans are behind on housing payment, and many could be pushed from their homes when the national eviction ban expires by June.

Since September, the eviction moratorium of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been in effect since September, will lift by June 30. Although the policy has been away from perfect at keeping renters housed, it’s decreased the average number of eviction filings over the same period by at least a half, according to Peter Hepburn, an assistant professor of Sociology at Rutgers University-Newark.

Experts say the evictions could skyrocket when the ban lifts. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis, around 15% of adult renters are not current on their housing payments.

“We’re going to see what we’ve been managing to stave off: this wave of evictions that is just going to crush some of these areas,” said John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.

The eviction moratorium has faced numerous legal challenges, and landlords have criticized the policy of CDC, saying they can’t afford to house people for free or shoulder the country’s rental arrears, which could be around $70 billion.

Yet housing advocates say the ban is releasing at a terrible time for property owners and tenants, with says still scrambling to distribute the $45 billion in rental assistance allocated by Congress to address the crisis.

“We need to let this moratorium stay in place until we spend all this money,” said Mark Melton, a lawyer who represents tenants facing eviction pro bono in Dallas.

Heather Jordan has approved for rental assistance in Missouri, but it could take a lot of time for the money to reach the landlord, who has already ready to evict her.

“If you’ve got the moratorium in place, it allows you the time to get the landlord paid,” Jordan said, who is aged 48, who fell behind on her $1,475 rent after she lost her sales job shortly before the pandemic.