NARPM Joins Housing Coalition Urging Congress to Repeal Pandemic-Era 30-Day Notice to Vacate

Legislative

May 19, 2026

NARPM^® joined 13 other national housing organizations this week in sending a letter to key House Appropriations leaders. The letter was addressed to the chair and ranking member of the full House Committee on Appropriations, as well as the chair and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) — the lawmakers with direct oversight of the spending bill where this fix would appear.

The coalition is asking Congress to include a key provision in the FY2027 THUD Appropriations bill that would clean up an outdated pandemic-era eviction requirement never formally removed from federal law. The fix mirrors the intent of the Respect for State Housing Laws Act, a bill that has been working through Congress to accomplish this same change through standalone legislation. The coalition is now pushing for inclusion in the appropriations bill as an additional path forward.

Some Background

When Congress passed the CARES Act in 2020, it included a 120-day eviction moratorium for federally backed and federally assisted housing. It also required housing providers to give covered residents 30 days’ notice before filing for eviction after the moratorium ended on July 24, 2020.

The moratorium has been over for years. The federal COVID-19 public health emergency has ended. But the 30-day notice language — subsection (c) of Section 4024 of the CARES Act — was never formally removed from the statute. That’s a drafting problem. It leaves an outdated federal mandate on the books, creating unnecessary confusion about what the law requires.

Striking that subsection would make clear that this emergency requirement has ended and return eviction policy to where it belongs: state and local governments.

Why This Matters for Property Managers

Eviction is always a last resort for professional property managers. Keeping units occupied and residents housed is good for everyone — residents, owners, and the broader community.

But when a tenant stops paying rent and a housing provider needs to act, clear and predictable rules matter. The CARES Act 30-day notice requirement was designed for a national emergency. That emergency is over. Leaving this language in federal law creates confusion — particularly when state and local eviction procedures already govern the process in most jurisdictions.

This ambiguity is especially hard on smaller “mom-and-pop” housing providers and affordable housing operators, who depend on rental income to maintain their properties and meet their financial obligations. Unnecessary legal uncertainty at the federal level ultimately hurts residents’ long-term housing opportunities too.

Who Signed the Letter

NARPM^® was joined by 13 peer organizations representing a broad cross-section of the rental housing industry:

National Apartment Association (NAA)
National Association of Realtors^® (NAR)
Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM^®)
National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)
National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA)
Council for Affordable and Rural Housing (CARH)
Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI)
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA)
National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC)
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO)
National Leased Housing Association (NLHA)
Public Housing Authority Directors Association (PHADA)

The breadth of this coalition — spanning affordable housing, conventional rentals, public housing, and manufactured housing — reflects how widely this issue affects the rental housing sector.

What Comes Next

The House Appropriations Committee is now drafting the FY2027 THUD spending bill. Including this fix in the bill text would accomplish what the Respect for State Housing Laws Act has sought to do — without waiting for standalone legislation to advance separately. The Subcommittee for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies has scheduled a markup for Thursday morning

NARPM^® will continue to advocate for this change and will keep you informed as the appropriations process moves forward.