A federal eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of this month, but with just days to go until the ban ends, states and localities have disbursed just about $3 billion, or about 6.5% of the nearly $47 billion in emergency rent assistance provided by the federal government since December.
Bloomberg’s Mackenzie Hawkins and Noah Buhayar report:
“The first round of federal funds, totaling $25 billion, was fully distributed to states and local jurisdictions by early February. By the end of May, the federal government had distributed another $8.6 billion from a $21.5 billion second round enacted in March.
“But only 12% of the first tranche of funding had made its way to renters by late June, according to U.S. Treasury Department data released on Wednesday. A handful of states like Texas and Virginia that quickly built infrastructure to dole out the money accounted for an outsize share of the funds that had been disbursed.”
More than 80 jurisdictions hadn’t started their distribution programs by the end of May, Hawkins and Buhayar say, even as localities stand to lost at least some of the funding if they don’t distribute it before October.
Picking up the pace: The Treasury Department said Wednesday that more than $1.5 billion in rental aid was delivered in June, more than all previous months combined. The aid went to 290,000 households, up from 160,000 in May and about 100,000 in April. But housing advocates warn that jurisdictions are still not acting quickly enough to prevent a potential crisis for renters and landlords.
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