Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance Payments Surpass 2.5 Million

With historic funding from the Treasury Department, state and local governments provided emergency rental assistance (ERA) to more than 521,000 renters and landlords in October, bringing the total number of ERA payments to more than 2.5 million.

To get this done, Treasury has been providing grantees with flexibility and guidance, which it says “helped speed up the pace at which these funds are reaching renters in need.”

There's more than $46 billion available for emergency rental assistance through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (ERA1) and the American Rescue Plan (ERA2). Treasury projects that up to $30 billion of it will be spent or obligated by the end of the year. As of the end of October, more than 100 grantees had spent their ERA1 funds and begun to spend their ERA2 funds. Some states, including New York, Oregon, and Texas, have either obligated nearly all their ERA funding or have more applications than funds available.

This fall, Treasury began a process to reallocate unused ERA1 funds . The department anticipates that a substantial portion of the first round of reallocation will happen voluntarily and collaboratively.

To provide additional support to renters, Treasury encourages states and localities to use other funding sources, including the $350 billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Read the full announcement here .

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