White House
The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice announced on January 29 that 99 law schools responded to the attorney general’s Call to Action to the Legal Profession issued on August 30, 2021. The call to action asked lawyers and law students to take immediate action to help their communities through emergency rental assistance application support, volunteering with legal aid providers, and helping courts implement eviction diversion programs, among other initiatives aimed at increasing housing stability and access to justice.
The White House released a fact sheet on February 1 – National Energy Assistance Day – outlining additional actions the administration is taking to help families struggling with their utility bills.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS released a brief on February 1 addressing the use of the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund for utility assistance. The “American Rescue Plan Act” created a $1 billion fund to enable states, territories, and tribes to provide cash or targeted assistance to families in need. The brief highlights the ways recipients can use these funds to respond to winter utility needs.
HHS released a radio announcement in English and Spanish and a video to encourage families to apply for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The department also released a Dear Colleague letter to LIHEAP administrations encouraging their participation in National Energy Assistance Day on February 1. Amid the ongoing public health emergency, LIHEAP continues to serve as a critical resource for people struggling to pay their utility bills.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD hosted a 2021 CARES Act Conference to help prepare for and respond to the pandemic. Those interested can access the entire conference library on the 2021 CARES Act Conference page on the HUD Exchange.
U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)
A new tool developed by USICH, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helps people identify and access federal non-emergency health and social service programs that support those experiencing homelessness. Access the tool here.
Reporting
In a recent Stateline article, the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that eviction filings are increasing to pre-pandemic levels. According to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, eviction filings in 11 major cities significantly increased soon after the federal eviction moratorium ended in August 2021. In the article, NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel explains that the resources and protections enacted by the federal government worked to keep people stably housed. However, she notes, evictions are increasing in communities where these resources are being depleted and protections are expiring.
In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Vincent Reina of the Housing Initiative at Penn discusses the need to draw on the lessons learned from Philadelphia’s successful emergency rental assistance (ERA) program to develop a new, permanent rental assistance program. State and local ERA programs need more federal support to successfully pivot from being emergency programs to offering long-term solutions for assisting renters and reducing evictions. Proposals like the bipartisan “Eviction Crisis Act” present opportunities for adopting a long-lasting federal commitment to addressing the nation’s eviction crisis.
State and Local News
Alaska
Anchorage officials are clearing homeless encampments in midwinter and amid the ongoing public health emergency, raising concerns from advocates who say the city is failing to provide viable alternatives to the encampments.
Arizona
Maricopa County’s quarantine hotel for people experiencing homelessness has sheltered more than 2,100 people over the course of the pandemic. The hotel is leased by the county with help from federal pandemic relief funds and is operated by Circle the City, a nonprofit that provides health care for people experiencing homelessness. The current lease on the hotel, which is in Phoenix, lasts through June 2022.
Arkansas
The Arkansas Department of Human Services announced on January 28 that the Arkansas Rent Relief Program has paused the process of accepting applications to implement changes to the manner in which funds are paid so that checks can be sent to both landlords and tenants. The department will continue to process those applications that have already been submitted and may allow new applications if funding remains after the existing applications are supported using the new payment process. In the future, checks issued in response to tenant-only applications will include the name of both the tenant and the landlord, meaning that tenants will need to work with landlords – including landlords who have been unresponsive or who have not completed paperwork – once a check is received.
California
Housing advocates fear that California’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) is likely to be underutilized by East Palo Alto residents due to a lack of knowledge about the program and a lack of accessibility to the legal process. Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto is teaming up with community partners to raise awareness about the program and clear up misconceptions about its operations.
Idaho
Ali Rabe, executive director of Jesse Tree, joined a segment of “Morning Edition” on the Boise State Public Radio News on January 26 to discuss the urgent need to support residents facing eviction and those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. She noted that while the Idaho Legislature debates ways to spend a $1.9 billion surplus, the Idaho State Housing Trust Fund remains unfunded.
Maryland
Baltimore City officials are investigating complaints that tenants are being illegally evicted without notice. “The situation has become significantly more dire, as we see an unprecedented number of evictions being filed [and] a spike in illegal evictions,” said Councilman Kristerfer Burnett. “And the majority of the time, tenants are given no notice.”
Nebraska
Housing advocates and some state senators are criticizing the decision of Governor Pete Ricketts to reject $120 million in federal emergency rental assistance (ERA). The state budget director defended Governor Ricketts’s decision by noting that Nebraska has not spent its first installment of ERA funds and by citing concerns about potential fraud. Advocates, on the other hand, say there is a dire need for ERA in the state and urge the governor to reconsider his decision.
New York
Governor Kathy Hochul is requesting $1.6 billion in federal emergency rental assistance. The state has yet to release about $661 million in funds for nearly 53,000 applicants due to ongoing bureaucratic problems and the refusal of some landlords to accept aid.
Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies who handle evictions expect an increase in eviction warrants over the coming months, as more cases work their way through local courts. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) joined other senators in calling on the U.S. Department of the Treasury to reallocate federal rent relief funds as quickly as possible to communities in need.
North Carolina
The RAMP CLT program suddenly stopped accepting new applications for emergency rental assistance, leaving many Mecklenburg County residents at risk of eviction and homelessness.
Durham Housing Authority officials are urging hundreds of tenants who live in public housing to apply for emergency rental assistance. About 500 families are currently behind on rent and could be evicted if they do not apply for aid by mid-February.
Ohio
NBC4 spotlighted Rentful614, a rental assistance hub that helps renters and landlords in Central Ohio access assistance. The website provides reliable, easy-to-access information on emergency rental assistance programs and provides eviction information customized for residents in Franklin County.
Oregon
Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) is once again accepting applications for its emergency rental assistance (ERA) program. For the last six weeks, OHCS had paused its ERA program while it processed a backlog of applications. OHCS will now begin processing applications received just before the pause began on December 1, 2021. Tenants who have applied since January 26, 2022, may receive safe harbor protections that prohibit landlords from evicting tenants until their ERA application is processed.
Texas
A COVID-19 eviction ordinance in Dallas will remain in place after Governor Greg Abbott renewed the state’s COVID-19 Disaster Declaration on January 22 for another 30 days. The ordinance gives tenants 21 days to respond to a Notice of Possible Eviction and to apply for rental assistance.
Virginia
Chesterfield County received an additional $3.8 million in federal emergency rental assistance (ERA) funds on January 26. The nonprofit organization administering the ERA program stopped accepting applications in December 2021 because demand outweighed available resources. County residents who did not submit new ERA applications by the mid-December cutoff are now prevented from doing so.
The Regent University School of Law launched an Eviction Diversion Initiative to provide free legal aid to renters facing eviction. The initiative is taking referrals from the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia, which has provided help to around 600 renters facing eviction. In August 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an appeal to the legal community to help address the looming eviction crisis.
Washington, DC
The District of Columbia will receive more than $17 million in reallocated emergency rental assistance funds. Even so, economists are warning of a wave of evictions in the coming months, with more than 40 evictions executed in January alone. So far, the district has distributed $155 million in aid to 23,000 renters, with an additional $105 million still moving through the distribution process.