The federal government has broad emergency powers to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and for other kinds of emergencies like civil defense etc. The powers are extremely broad with language like "such actions as may be appropriate". You should note that the federal eviction orders side-step some legal issues because they don't absolve tenants of their rents, they just delayed their evictions if they don't pay them. So, technically the order hasn't impaired the rents owed to the landlords.
> The federal government has broad emergency powers to prevent the spread of infectious diseases
The supreme court said the CDC exceeded their statutory authority [0]:
> As he often does, Kavanaugh wrote to explain why he voted to allow the moratorium to remain in place. On the one hand, he said he agreed with the District Court that the CDC exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a nationwide moratorium.
> But, he said, because the CDC has said it will end the moratorium in a few weeks he would allow it to remain in place. He said the extra weeks will "allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds."
> Kavanaugh made clear however, that if the government were to extend the moratorium past July 31, it would need "specific congressional authorization."
So it sounds like the eviction moratorium was illegal.
> So, technically the order hasn't impaired the rents owed to the landlords.
It hasn't impaired them? Owning an obligation is much worse than owning the cash. If someone didn't pay rent for 9 months, landlords might never see that money. When they could evict, they might only eat 3 months of losses, now they will have 9-12 months of losses. The owners are basically paying "rent" (debt service), so freeloaders can live there.
If anything, a chunk of relief money to renters should have been debt vouchers to their landlords that can redeem them for cash from the gov't. The gov't can then get repaid through federal tax returns. (or forgive them as a benefit)
