Treasury Provides Promising Practices for ERA Grantees To Help Limit Evictions
As COVID-19 concerns continue to linger nationwide, the Office of the Treasury is encouraging government recipients to use their Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) grant funds in ways that can best help renting individuals and families that are facing evictions. To do this, it is sharing promising practices to avoid evictions that other states and communities have used to aid those in need.
Treasury notes that many grantees have found that partnerships with their local court systems and legal services organizations help prevent housing insecurity and enable landlords to recover from rental arrearages. While court systems and eviction procedures vary across states and localities, recipients have worked with local courts, legal aid organizations, and other stakeholders to reach households facing imminent eviction. These partnerships have often included streamlined procedures that reduce the ERA participation eligibility documentation required from households in these situations. ERA recipients also have found that court data is helpful for informing landlords about targeted outreach efforts.
For example, Massachusetts has developed a two-tiered eviction process that has integrated the ERA program into eviction proceedings. In the first tier, landlords and tenants work with a mediator who can direct them to ERA resources to cover qualified rental arrears. This state-funded program also engages legal aid services, as well as housing reinstatement services, for those cases where tenants ultimately experience eviction.
In Louisville, Kent., the city is using a multi-pronged approach to eviction diversion that includes legal representation for tenants, community-based outreach and collaboration with local courts. The city has allocated $400,000 of its ERA funding to enact a right-to-counsel program for those tenants with children who are facing eviction. Its Office of Resilience and Community Services has partnered with the other government offices and organizations to target and contact residents at risk of eviction. Such outreach includes knocking on doors, sending texts, and making phone calls to encourage these tenants not to miss their court dates. Staff also attend eviction court daily and can coordinate with the judges to stay eviction for tenants who could benefit from ERA.
In addition, Treasury recognizes that not all tenants will have access to or will be able to submit the documentation typically used to verify employment, household income, loss of income or rental obligation in the ERA application. Likewise, a landlord may be unwilling to cooperate with a documentation request. To ensure that ERA assistance is made available to all who qualify, Treasury guidance has indicated that written attestation is an appropriate means for satisfying documentation requirements for ERA, and has provided examples of self-attestation forms currently used by grantees.
Treasury also has included other types of promising practices for using ERA funds here.
Dealing with the health and economic concerns related to COVID is hard enough. The fear of eviction makes it even more devastating. Any efforts by ERA recipients to assist these individuals and families is welcome to hear.
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