Sneak Preview: Treasury Guidance Seeks Faster ERA Applications
(The following is excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants 360 article.) The Department of the Treasury recently issued guidance that updates its Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program policies to better enable governmental recipients to assist families and individuals facing evictions to more quickly apply for aid.
Treasury has provided two rounds of funding under ERA ― the initial allocation of funding, known as ERA1, under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (Pub. L. 116-260), and a later second wave of funding, known as ERA2, under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) (Pub. L. 117-2). ERA1 provided up to $25 billion on Dec. 27, 2020, to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to assist households that are unable to pay rent or utilities, while ERA2 provided another $21.55 billion to state, local and territorial governments on March 11. Since January, state and local programs have made about 1 million payments benefitting households at risk of eviction.
“However, too many grantees have yet to demonstrate sufficient progress in getting assistance to struggling tenants and landlords,” Treasury explained in the guidance. “After September, programs that are unwilling or unable to deliver assistance quickly will be at risk of having their rental assistance funding reallocated to effective programs in other high-need areas.” More specifically, the ERA1 statute requires Treasury on Sept. 30 to recapture excess funds that have not been obligated by a state or other grantee, and reallocate those resources to high-performing jurisdictions that have obligated at least 65% of their original allocation.
Under the ERA program, Treasury expects that rental and utility assistance can be provided most effectively and efficiently when the landlord or utility provider participates in the program, in which the governmental ERA recipient would provide payments to the landlord or utility provider for the eligible household. However, in cases where a landlord or utility provider does not participate in the program, assistance would be provided directly to the eligible household. In ERA1, grantees must make reasonable efforts to obtain the cooperation of landlords and utility providers to accept payments from the ERA program. ERA2 does not require grantees to seek the cooperation of the landlord or utility provider before providing assistance directly to the tenant.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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