The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released an updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on May 10 that provides further guidance regarding its two Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA1 and ERA2) programs. The updated FAQ corresponds with the ending of the public health emergency, which will not affect the availability of ERA or a household’s eligibility for financial assistance or housing stability services. Grantees may still determine that households have experienced a financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the coronavirus pandemic. Grantees can continue to rely on FAQ 2 (question/answer 2 in the updated FAQ) for guidance for documentation requirements.
Treasury has updated language in FAQ4 (question/answer 4 in the updated FAQ) to allow grantees to continue to use self-attestation alone for income verification for the remainder of ERA2 if they have already established such policies and procedures as of May 11, 2023. If self-attestation is used to document most of an applicant’s income, the grantee must reassess the household’s income every three months by obtaining a new self-attestation or appropriate documentation.
More information about COVID-19-era programs is available at Chapter 10 of NLIHC’s 2023 Advocates’ Guide.