According to Bloomberg News, to prevent evictions and displacement as a result of economic disruptions due to the pandemic, the US Congress has authorized $47 billion towards emergency rental assistance. However, these funds expanded after being introduced in December 2020 under the American Rescue Plan, March 2021, and have reached the tenants at a very slow pace. To date, the local, as well as state governments, have released just $10 billion as payments.
The Biden administration to push the money out of the door is planning to enforce a deadline for the state and local governments that are sluggish and have to submit until 11:59 pm, November 15th a plan to the Treasury manifesting the commitment they have towards extending help to tenants so that they receive the funds, as per a spokesperson from the Treasury spoke to Bloomberg CityLab.
As many as 150 cities and counties and 32 states have incurred expense that is less than 30% of the allocation as of October, as per federal data, and will also have to submit a plan for program improvement if they desire to keep the funding. The ones that will fail to do so will see the funds being reallocated to the other states and cities fully.
States that have Republican governors constitute the lion’s share of the ones that failed to hit the threshold of spending. Out of the 32 states that still have to meet the mark, the Republicans hold as many as 27. On the other hand, two states, namely, Alaska and Texas have distributed adequate funds so that they do not have to be subjected to scrutiny by the Treasury. In some states, the differences between local and state performance were huge. On one hand, Atlanta has incurred 90% of funds in its first round of federal aid, Georgia has spent 9% only of the state-level funds.
The GOP states were the worst performers in the West. The states include Montana that has distributed 11% of the state funds, Wyoming 4%, South Dakota 3%, and North Dakota 4%.
In the more recalcitrant states under Republican lawmakers, they have tried to slow down or even reject the residents’ federal funds. In the less populated states, the local governments have not received direct funding, could see that their federal allocations might get redistributed to the other states.
For the state governments, slow-moving rent relief is not an exclusive problem, however, New Jersey, for instance, has spent 100% of the money of the federal aid in the first round but the local governments have spent just about 25% of the funds.
Texas received $1.9 billion from the first round of federal rent funding aid, which is the largest after California, the money has been divided between 36 individual funds and a state purse for counties and cities.
Texas closed down its portal for accepting applications for receiving funding as it was found that the applications received have far exceeded the available funds. However, yet, ranging from the affluent Dallas Fort Worth centers to the counties that are heavily Latino dominated along the US border and Mexico still has to distribute its funds.
The tenants that are struggling are subjected to the risk of getting trapped into the gap between the places that have exhausted all of the relief funds and the ones that have spent little, reports Bloomberg News.
This is, however, not the last “checkup” being performed by the Treasury. Every two months and through March 31, there will be a reassessment of how the rent relief program grantees are performing or doing.
The majority of the Texas jurisdiction that is late in allocating funds is planning to submit an improvement plan with the Treasury. For Texas, there is more than $26 million in line. Some of the local governments are very close to attaining their target goal. For instance, Dallas suburbs, Arlington and Garland spent 25% and 26% of the allocations. These cities will not be required to go far to show their compliance.
Texas is hoping that it might be a net recipient of the funds offered by the fed that the Treasury will redistribute reports Bloomberg news.
