The U.S. Department of the Treasury released updated Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) spending data through October 31, revealing that an additional $2.2 billion in ERA1 and $666 million in ERA2 funding was spent in October. Overall, $13.1 billion from ERA1 and ERA2 has been committed or disbursed to households by the end of October, reaching over 2.5 million renter households. Spending is uneven among ERA programs across the country.
After steady increases in monthly ERA1 spending since the program’s start, October marked the first month in which ERA1 spending decreased. Despite the decrease, ERA2 spending more than tripled between September and October. This trend highlights the uneven performance of ERA programs. While roughly 100 programs have spent most of their ERA1 allocation and are transitioning to ERA2, other ERA1 grantees continue to spend slowly, with approximately 95 of grantees having spent less than one-third of their ERA1 allocation.
“While the overall rate of spending emergency rental assistance has improved, many programs are still too slow in getting assistance to tenants in need,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “Most slow spenders and poor performers are needlessly delayed by their refusal to use flexibilities and best practices to expedite assistance.”
State grantees, whose allocations account for $17.7 billion of ERA1, spent 48% of their funding by October 31, up from 38% at the end of September. Thirteen states have spent more than 50% of their ERA1 allocation, with New York, California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia spending 100%, 91%, 90%, and 89% of their allocations, respectively. Many other states continue to fall behind, with 16 states having spent less than 20% of their allocations by the end of October. Many of these states will have some of their funds reallocated due to their low spending rates, though Treasury has not yet published the amounts to be recaptured from specific grantees. Several states have also begun spending their ERA2 funds. New Jersey reports spending 67% of its total ERA2 allocation, followed by the District of Columbia at 27%, Maine at 21%, and California at 10%. The state of Maine has stopped spending ERA1 in favor of ERA2, resulting in their relatively high ERA2 spending rate.
Local grantees reporting data spent 68% of their total ERA1 allocations by the end of October. Approximately 80 localities have spent more than 90% of their ERA1 funding, and nearly two-thirds have spent more than 50%. Over 100 local grantees have started spending ERA2, with many large cities and counties already spending a significant portion of their allocation. Austin, TX, New Orleans, LA, Philadelphia, PA, and Harris County, TX have reportedly spent more than 60% of their ERA2 allocations.
To increase the pace of fund distribution in jurisdictions with high need, Treasury is moving additional funds to jurisdictions that have spent their funds quickly and have remaining need. Per Treasury’s reallocation guidance, the initial round of reallocation will be based on September’s spending data (see Memo 11/2) and the next round will be based on November’s spending data. NLIHC tracks ERA spending on our ERA Dashboard and Spending Tracker. Our tracking integrates Treasury data with real-time data from program dashboards and program administrators to provide a closer estimate of how much ERA funding has been obligated to date.
Download Treasury’s October ERA data at: https://bit.ly/3dj9Mct
Read NLIHC’s statement and analysis of the October ERA data.