The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued a notice on September 13 regarding unobligated emergency rental assistance (ERA1) funds provided through the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.” The notice addresses upcoming ERA1 deadlines and outlines options available to grantees that anticipate having unobligated ERA1 funds at the end of the program’s period of performance.
The notice addresses the following:
- Deadlines for Obligating ERA1 Funds: A grantee’s initial allocation of ERA1 funds will remain available through September 30, 2022. Treasury has granted a 90-day extension of the availability of ERA1 funds received through reallocation. Reallocated ERA1 funds will remain available to grantees through December 29, 2022. Any funds that are not obligated or expended by those deadlines must be returned to Treasury.
- Grantees Anticipating Unobligated Funds at Obligation Deadlines: Treasury urges grantees to maintain robust ERA1 programs until their funds are fully obligated or until the end of the ERA1 award period of performance. As a supplement to their existing ERA1 programs, grantees may consider one of the following approaches to reduce the amount of unobligated funds they have by the obligation deadlines:
- Voluntarily Return Funds to Treasury: Treasury strongly encourages grantees that do not anticipate obligating their ERA1 funds by the deadlines to voluntarily return those funds by September 26, 2022. As with prior rounds of reallocation, Treasury intends to prioritize reallocating returned funds to other grantees within the same state, consistent with jurisdictional needs. Grantees that are able to expend additional reallocated funds may apply to receive funds by September 26, 2022. Treasury expects to disburse reallocated funds by early October 2022.
- Recharacterize Expenditures: In certain circumstances, a grantee may recharacterize expenditures that were initially allocated to its ERA2 award as falling under its ERA1 award. Grantees must ensure that any funds recharacterized from ERA2 to ERA1 were used in compliance with all applicable ERA1 requirements.
Read the notice at: https://bit.ly/3Dpb6cg