Rep. Cori Bush says Congress needs to work to make sure "people have a footing" after new eviction moratorium ends

Congresswoman Cori Bush is calling on lawmakers to work to make sure that "people have a footing" after the new eviction moratorium ends. Bush, who was once "houseless" herself, said on CBSN Wednesday that Congress needs to look at what it can do right now to make sure that after the moratorium expires on October 3 it has "exhausted" government money available to help people.

"This has bought Congress some time to see what it is that we need to do," Bush said. "One issue that we have is this 40 plus billion dollars that is sitting in those state and those local government coffers that we need to get out to the people. We need to get it out and see where we are, believing that this will help to get the country back on track as far as those that are possibly facing evictions."  During the pandemic, Congress approved over $46 billion in rental assistance for families affected by the pandemic. But Bush said discrepancies in application lengths and qualifications have bottlenecked local and state governments from processing and distributing the funds. As of the end of June, tenants in need had received only $3 billion of the funds.