2020年经济学人 疫情下的租房驱逐保护令(3)（在线收听）

Although the CDC order is doubtless well-intended, whether it will be judged legal is still uncertain. The latitude given to public-health officials to contain an epidemic is broad, but this kind of action has no recent precedent. Without any immediate compensation for lost rental payments, landlords will be left with mounting bills. Arguably, this stands awkwardly with the constitutional guarantee that “private property shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation”. Indeed, there is already a lawsuit against the city and state eviction moratoriums introduced in Seattle, Washington, on this ground. One of the plaintiffs in that case is owed $14,000 from two tenants who stopped paying rent in April.

毫无疑问，美国疾病控制与预防中心发布禁止驱逐令是出于善意，但该法令能否被判定为合法仍是未知数。美国政府给了公共卫生官员很大的自由度去控制疫情，但发布禁令的行为最近没有先例。如果不立即补偿租金损失，房东将面临越来越多的账单。可以说，这与宪法规定的“不给予公平赔偿，私有财产不得充作公用”格格不入。实际上，在华盛顿西雅图已经由此发起了一场针对华盛顿州和西雅图市的禁止驱逐令的诉讼。此案中，有两名房客欠下原告1.4万美元，他们从4月份停止支付租金。

Tenant advocates and landlord-lobby associations, usually at loggerheads, agree on one thing—they would rather the federal government footed the bill. The stimulus proposal created by Democrats in Congress would set aside $100bn to help pay for six months of back-rent and late fees, but its actual passage looks improbable. Others would like to go further. Housing Justice for All, a New York group, would like all housing costs (including utilities) incurred during the epidemic to be “automatically forgiven and never owed”. Left-leaning state legislators have introduced a bill that would do almost exactly that.

租户律师和房东游说协会争执不下，但他们对一件事统一了意见，就是他们宁愿联邦政府来买单。民主党在国会提出了刺激方案，提议政府拨款1000亿美元，帮助支付六个月的欠租和滞纳金，但这项方案实际通过的可能性不大。其他的组织希望更进一步。纽约一个名为“人人享有住房公正”的组织希望，疫情期间的所有住房费用（包括水电费）都能够“自动免除，绝不拖欠”。左倾的州立法者提出了一项法案，几乎可以实现上述的希望。

Nothing spurs policy innovation quite like a crisis. During the second world war America imposed extraordinary rent controls covering more than 80% of the national rental stock. Today, some would like to supplant national rent control with national rent cancellation.

没有什么能比危机更能刺激政策创新了。二战期间，美国对全国80%以上的房屋实行了特别租金管制。今天，有些人想用取消国家租金来取代国家租金管制。