In our most recent (March 14) national call for the “HoUSed: Universal, Stable, and Affordable Housing” campaign, we discussed the status of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 spending bill and its investments in affordable housing. We also heard about new research, learned about emergency rental assistance (ERA) spending numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and received updates about field operations in New Mexico, California, and Oregon.
NLIHC’s Kim Johnson provided updates about developments on Capitol Hill. Congress passed and President Biden has signed an FY2022 spending bill to keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year. The bill provides HUD programs with about $2.5 billion in increased funding over FY2021 enacted levels. View NLIHC’s analysis of the spending bill and our updated budget chart.
Eviction Lab’s Anne Kat Alexander, Emily Lemmerman, and Joe Fish presented a preliminary analysis of eviction filing patterns in 2021. They found that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 3 million eviction cases have been averted, with the greatest reductions in low-income and Black neighborhoods. The researchers attributed these outcomes to pandemic-related policies, like the national eviction moratorium, expanded unemployment benefits, and Child Tax Credit payments.
Meghan Henry, Anna Robinson, and Tanya de Sousa from Abt Associates shared key findings from HUD’s 2021 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR), an annual report estimating the number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. Results showed that in 2021, the number of people experiencing sheltered homelessness declined, which the researchers attributed to changes in shelter capacity designed to comply with COVID-19 protocols, hesitancy in seeking congregate sheltering, and the prioritization of Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs over temporary sheltering. They also hypothesized that pandemic-related policies, including eviction moratoriums, stimulus payments, and other homelessness-diversion efforts, stemmed the flow of people into the homelessness system.
Claudia Aiken from the Housing Initiative at Penn and Rebecca Yae from NLIHC discussed the highlights of their new report, “Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) During the Pandemic: Implications for the Design of Permanent ERA Programs.” The report suggests that permanent ERA programs, like the one proposed in the “Eviction Crisis Act,” should incorporate lessons that have been learned from COVID-19-related ERA distribution efforts. In particular, the report suggests that permanent programs should provide sufficient and sustained funding, adopt flexible documentation requirements and direct-to-tenant assistance, and provide clear and prompt guidance to establish program parameters.
NLIHC’s Sophie Siebach-Glover gave an overview of the latest ERA spending data released by Treasury. Overall, as of January 2021, approximately $20.5 billion of the roughly $47 billion allocated for ERA had been paid out and had reached 4.3 million applicants. However, spending has varied drastically by state, with some states having spent almost all their ERA1 allocations and others having spent as little as 4% of their ERA1 funds. Treasury is currently in the process of reallocating funds from slow-spending grantees to higher-spending states. NLIHC is monitoring ERA distribution; view our ERA Treasury Dashboard here.
Robyn Powell from the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority provided a field update on legislation recently passed in the state to allocate additional funding to the New Mexico Housing Trust Fund. Brad Hirn from the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco discussed the city’s right to organize legislation. Kim McCarty from Community Alliance of Tenants in Oregon concluded the call by discussing her organization’s efforts to organize tenants.
Due to NLIHC’s Virtual Housing Policy Forum, there will be no national HoUSed call today (March 21). The next call will be March 28 at 2:30 pm ET. Register for the call at: tinyurl.com/ru73qan
Watch a recording of the March 14 call at: tinyurl.com/y66h9na5
View presentation slides from the March 14 call at: tinyurl.com/5dennjw7