The Biden administration won’t extend the expiring coronavirus eviction moratorium for a third time, but the White House says it’s working with states and local governments to “develop a new national infrastructure” to provide rental aid and prevent evictions in the future once the moratorium expires.
The scramble comes as billions of dollars in already enacted aid haven’t been disbursed.
The United States Supreme Court rejected a bid to lift the moratorium in late June, and the final month of the stay’s life cycle let the administration continue “an all-out effort” to provide both renters and landlords information about how they can continue to receive relief after the moratorium expires on July 31, a White House official told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. That official did not answer questions, however, about whether or not the president would support additional rent relief or eviction provisions in Democrats’ forthcoming $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation infrastructure proposal.
BIDEN EXTENDS EVICTIONS MORATORIUM FOR A FINAL MONTH
In total, Congress appropriated more than $46 billion for the Emergency Rental Assistance programs over the past year. A first tranche of $25 billion was included in December 2020’s Consolidated Appropriations Act, which, according to the Treasury Department, will not expire until Sept. 30, 2022, while the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” made a second round of funding, worth $21.55 billion, available through Sept. 30, 2025.
The government had disbursed the entire first round of ERA aid to states and local governments by the end of February and $8.6 billion of the second round in May, but when pressed for clarification on total funds disbursed to grantees, a Treasury spokesperson confirmed that “of the $25 billion of ERA 1 funds, $1.5 billion has been distributed by the state, local and Tribal governments” and that they “have not yet” prepared ERA 2 data to be publicly released.
The Treasury announced Wednesday morning that ERA grantees were delivered $1.5 billion in ERA relief in June, more than was disbursed across the prior three months combined. That sum marks an 85% increase in participating grantees compared to May.
“The data demonstrate what the administration has heard from states and localities over the past few months,” a White House official told the Washington Examiner. “That ERA is helping develop a new national infrastructure for rental assistance and eviction prevention that did not previously exist, and as programs are stood up, they are able to scale quickly.”
The White House official did concede that “in many states and localities, funds are still not flowing fast enough to renters and landlords.”
Toward that end, the White House has held two virtual “convenings” of federal, state, and local government officials, the second of which occurred Wednesday to share “concrete actions jurisdictions have taken” to help needy tenants and discuss “best practices” to entice renters and landlords to apply for the program.
Wednesday’s convening specifically highlighted action taken to distribute assistance by officials in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Cobb County, Georgia, and Colorado.
Furthermore, the Department of Housing and Urban Development also announced Wednesday an allocated $19.4 million “to provide support to fair housing enforcement organizations” to deal with “discriminatory evictions and foreclosures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Still, members of both parties have criticized the administration’s stewardship of the ERA program in recent weeks.
According to ERA guidance, at least 90% of awarded funds must be used for “direct financial assistance, including rent, rental arrears, utilities and home energy costs, utilities and home energy costs arrears, and other expenses related to housing.”
The remaining 10% or less can be used for “housing stability services, including case management and other services intended to keep households stably housed,” and Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla attacked the administration in early July for failing to allow grantees to use “federal emergency rental assistance to pay down housing-related debt.”
“This practice of renters incurring debt to avoid eviction is exactly the type of housing insecurity Congress intended to curb with the funds appropriated for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program,” they wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “To assist these households, we request that you update the Emergency Rental Assistance Program guidance to allow households to receive federal rental assistance for rent paid for with credit cards or other loans.”
North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee who introduced legislation in June seeking to streamline the payment of ERA funds to at-risk renters, issued a much more pointed criticism of the White House.
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“This report confirms my concerns,” McHenry said of the Treasury’s Wednesday report in a statement given to the Washington Examiner. “The Biden Administration is failing to provide Emergency Rental Assistance to Americans in need. With millions of families worried they’ll lose their homes in 10 days, we need to act now to correct this gross mismanagement. Republicans have a solution, the Renter Protection Act, to get this aid out the door. But instead of working with us, Democrats are more focused on their progressive agenda—leaving renters twisting in the wind.”
