In recognition of the second anniversary of the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” (ARPA), the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released a report identifying positive impacts of the law over the past two years. The report highlights ARPA’s success in addressing the health and housing needs of America’s lowest-income and most marginalized households and providing communities nationwide with the resources needed to build stronger housing safety nets.
Thanks to the strong leadership of Congress and the Biden-Harris administration and the significant housing resources enacted in ARPA:
- More than 99% of all available State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) have been delivered into the hands of nearly every state, local, tribal, and territorial government to support their responses to the pandemic. To date, recipients have budgeted $15.9 billion for housing-related purposes.
- As of December 2022, the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program had delivered more than 10.3 million assistance payments to families at risk of eviction. While eviction diversion programs were uncommon before the pandemic, at least 180 jurisdictions across 36 states have launched or strengthened eviction diversion programs with ERA, and these programs have significantly limited eviction rates.
- The expanded Child Tax Credit was the leading driver of a 46% decline in child poverty in 2021, which resulted in the annual child poverty rate reaching its lowest-ever recorded level.
In addition to the report, Treasury has released a new interactive map that shows how State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds are being spent in states across the country and that contains the latest program data through December 31, 2022. Further, Treasury published a new program reporting analysis that demonstrates how recovery funds are being spent to improve communities. The White House has also highlighted the achievements of the American Rescue Plan Act over the past two years and produced state-by-state reports on the impact of ARPA in every state across the country.
Despite the tremendous success of the American Rescue Plan Act, the legislation was not intended to solve the longstanding causes of housing affordability. Even before the pandemic, the U.S had an affordable housing crisis. There is a national shortage of over 7 million homes that are affordable and available to America’s lowest-income renters. Without affordable housing options, 10 million of the lowest-income renter households pay at least half of their income on rent, putting them at higher risk of eviction and homelessness.
As emergency resources are being depleted and pandemic-era renter protections expire, renters are faced with record-high rents, eviction filing rates that are reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic averages, and, in many communities, increasing homelessness.
To fully address the housing and homelessness crisis that existed prior to the pandemic and to fix our nation’s housing safety net, Congress and the Biden-Harris administration must invest in long-term solutions to the underlying shortage of affordable, accessible homes and improve renter protections for the lowest-income people.
See NLIHC’s press release celebrating the two-year anniversary of ARPA here.