NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel sent a letter on February 2 to U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) Secretary Janet Yellen to voice concern that an inequitable initial allocation formula, the slow redistribution of funds, and delays in the disbursement of obligated funds are creating critical gaps in Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program. Writing on behalf of NLIHC, the NLIHC End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) cohort, and the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition, Yentel urged Treasury to accelerate the ERA recapture and reallocation process to enable states and communities to address urgent rental arrears and keep low-income renters stably housed amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent weeks, several large ERA programs have paused operations or closed due to a lack of funds, putting low-income renters at risk of eviction. NLIHC estimates that without reallocated funds, six state programs – those run by California, the District of Columbia, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Texas – will have spent all their ERA1 and ERA2 funds by March 2022, despite only reaching a small portion of potentially eligible renter households. In contrast, due to an inequitable statutory formula, ERA funds were disproportionately provided to several states with fewer renters. NLIHC analysis finds that, absent any other changes, if states continue to spend at their current rate, nine states will still have remaining ERA2 funds by the statutory deadline for expending these resources.
To address the critical gaps in ERA, the letter calls on Treasury to use a data-driven approach to reallocate funds from programs where they may be left unused to programs requiring additional resources to serve all households in need. In support of this goal, NLIHC urges Treasury to take four steps: reallocate ERA1 and ERA2 to high-need grantees; recapture and reallocate ERA2 funds beginning on March 31, 2022; increase transparency of the reallocation determination process; and require programs to release obligated funds through direct-to-tenant assistance.
Read the full text of the letter at: https://bit.ly/3ujulPT