Washington, DC – The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) today released new emergency rental assistance (ERA) spending numbers through the end of February 2022 as well as new guidance on the reallocation of emergency rental assistance funds appropriated under the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.” Of the total emergency rental assistance funds made available by the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021” (ERA1) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ERA2), $22.5 billion has been disbursed to more than 3.2 million renter households through 4.6 million payments since January 2021. Because Treasury expects most of the remaining funds to be depleted by the middle of this year, the department also issued new guidance for the reallocation of ERA2 funds from grantees that have received but not used them to grantees still in need.
“The new data from Treasury prove just how vitally important emergency rental assistance has been in ensuring housing stability for the lowest-income households during the pandemic,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “These emergency rental assistance funds – along with the more than 130 tenant protections passed by state and local governments around the country – have prevented millions of evictions.”
In addition to issuing new spending data, Treasury also released new guidance relating to the reallocation of the $21.5 billion in unspent ERA2 funds. Treasury is statutorily required to identify funds for reallocation from amounts allocated to grantees but not yet paid out beginning on March 31, 2022.
“Treasury’s new guidance on the recapture and reallocation of ERA2 allocations implements many of NLIHC’s recommendations,” said Ms. Yentel. “The Biden administration is being appropriately aggressive in ensuring these emergency funds are quickly used to assist households still in need.”
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