WASHINGTON • The Biden administration Thursday extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month to help millions of tenants unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic, but said this is the last time it plans to do so.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extended the evictions moratorium from June 30 until July 31. The CDC said “this is intended to be the final extension of the moratorium.”

A Biden administration official said the last month would be used for an “all hands on deck” multiagency campaign to prevent a wave of evictions. One of the reasons the moratorium was put in place was to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.

As of the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of June 7, roughly 3.2 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Ronald Leonard, a 68-year-old retired heavy equipment operator from Daytona Beach, was facing eviction from his one-bedroom apartment. His landlord also is refusing to take federal assistance to cover $5,000 in back rent. “I don’t have to worry about July no more.”

Cristina Livingston recounts the problems she has had in her apartment including a leaking ceiling and mold, Friday, June 18, 2021, at her home in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla. The Biden administration on Thursday, June 24, extended the nationwide ban on evictions for a month to help millions of tenants unable to make rent payments during the coronavirus pandemic but said this is expected to be the last time it does so. Livingston, mother of two had lost her administrative assistant job during the pandemic, said she was relieved to hear it had been extended. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Wilfredo Lee