NLIHC launched a new feature on its Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Dashboard, the “Spending Tracker (ERA1),” which provides a snapshot of spending progress of ERA1 (ERA funds from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021). The accompanying ERA1 Spending Tracking spreadsheet provides detail on spending progress for state and local programs. Additionally, NLIHC updated the ERA Dashboard to include the share of programs covering other housing-related expenses, such as relocation expenses, late fees, hotel/motel stays, and internet costs.
The ERA Dashboard’s newest feature, Spending Tracker (ERA1), shows how much assistance programs have approved or paid to households based on information from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Emergency Rental Assistance Program Monthly Compliance Report and Quarterly Reports, as well as publicly available data from program dashboards; data from communications with program administrators and advocates; and news articles. Based on NLIHC’s tracking, 16.9% of ERA1 funds have been approved or paid to households as of August 11. This percentage does not account for funding expended by tribes and tribally designated housing entities because these data are not yet available from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The spending tracker will be updated weekly and will eventually account for ERA2, or ERA funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The tracker links to an ERA Spending Tracking spreadsheet, where more disaggregated spending data can be found.
NLIHC also updated the ERA Dashboard to delineate which programs are covering other housing-related expenses, including relocation expenses, late fees, hotel/motel stays, internet costs, and uncategorized housing expenses. NLIHC identified that 47% of programs are using ERA for at least one type of other housing expense, with internet costs being the most common, followed by relocation expenses. Below the dashboard, users can also see if their local programs are explicitly covering each type of expense.
If you have any questions about the data, or if you know about any dashboards that are not on NLIHC’s list, email: [email protected]