Joshua Solomon reports in the Times Union that New York's eviction moratorium expires Aug. 31, and lawmakers may head to Albany the next day to restore the protections. A legislative official told the Times Union that state lawmakers will return Sept. 1 or 2 to tweak policies to abide within the parameters of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on emergency relief to renters. COVID-19 halted evictions, as legislators attempted to stabilize the rental housing market while citizens were forced to stay at home, and the job market rapidly changed. Now there is a vaccine for the disease, but many refuse to take it, which has elongated the pandemic. This special legislative session is only supposed to be for the eviction moratorium and the emergency rental assistance program, but once legislators are gathered in Albany, anything could happen. In Columbia County there have been 142 applications submitted for rent relief through the state's emergency rental assistance program, as of July 30. In Greene County the number is 128. Last week, the conservative judges on the Supreme Court ruled that it was outside the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to place a nationwide ban on evictions, even in the face of a worldwide pandemic. Read more about this story in the Times Union.