The US Treasury Department says it is on track to deplete most of its rental aid funds by mid-2022 According to Reuters

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Department officials are urging cities to turn over part of their $350 billion stake in state and local COVID-19 aid to help renters homes are having a hard time staying in their homes when Emergency Rental Assistance runs out of money this summer.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday the $46.6 billion program to prevent evictions has disbursed or mandated more than $30 billion to renters and landlords through the end of February, and is on track to run out of “much” of its funding by the middle of this year.

The program, which launched in January 2021, struggled for the first few months to get up and running as communities previously did not have the infrastructure to prevent evictions and advise tenants. are facing job loss.

To avoid a sudden cut in rental assistance funding, the Treasury Department said some state, local and tribal governments have allocated about $3.75 billion from the Financial Recovery Fund allocation. State and Local for rental, mortgage and utility assistance and other eviction and preventive services.

That separate $350 billion COVID-19 aid program enables broad discretionary spending and is emerging as an important social policy tool.

U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Wally Adeyemo said the rent assistance program, enacted in two tranches in December 2020 and in March 2021, has kept displacement rates from the pandemic much lower. compared to the historical average.

“As these emergency funds dry up, now is the time for state and local governments to leverage this infrastructure to provide services such as housing counseling and rights programs that will help families avoid long-term economic scarring after COVID-19 in the rear-view mirror.”

The Emergency Rental Assistance Program reported about $1.93 billion spent on rent, utilities and debt in February, compared with $1.94 billion for January and $2.45 billion la in December 2021. It supported 462,552 households in February.