Cori Bush Camps Outside the Capitol to Protest the End of the Eviction Moratorium

The nationwide eviction moratorium, one of the protections established to help Americans facing unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic, expired July 31. The end of the eviction freeze leaves more than 6 million Americans vulnerable to eviction and homelessness.

As the opportunity to extend the current freeze dwindled down over the weekend, Congresswoman Cori Bush took action, camping overnight outside the Capitol building on Friday and Saturday night to protest the end of the moratorium and call on Congress to extend the eviction freeze.

The Missouri representative documented the protest through Instagram and Twitter, per People. In her initial post, Rep. Bush called out several of her Democratic colleagues for going on vacation Friday as the House of Representatives adjourned for their August recess. "I’ll be sleeping outside the Capitol tonight. We’ve still got work to do," Bush wrote in the caption.

Rep. Bush and her supporters slept outside the Capitol on both Friday and Saturday night, and also protested during the day on Saturday, the last day of the moratorium. She was joined throughout the two days of protest by multiple Democratic senators and representatives, including "squad" members Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Though Congress did not reconvene before the moratorium expired, Rep. Bush posted on Twitter early Sunday morning, indicating that her fight for an eviction freeze will continue. "The eviction moratorium expired, so we’re now in an eviction emergency. 11 million are now at risk of losing their homes at any moment," she wrote.

The overnight protest happened after Bush sent a letter to Congressional Democrats urging them not to adjourn until they extended the eviction freeze. In the letter, Bush shared her own experience with homelessness, and said she had previously lived out of her car with her two children after being evicted.

Rep. Bush wrote, "I remember what it was like for us to live out of my car. I think about how society wanted me to believe that being unhoused was my fault. We have a deeply rooted misconception in our country that unhoused people have done something to deserve their conditions–when the reality is that unhoused people are living the consequences of our government's failure to secure the basic necessities people need to survive. In the wealthiest country in the world–no one deserves to be unhoused."

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