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Today, the Biden Administration announced a
one-month extension of the CDC’s federal eviction moratorium
through July 31 (White House Fact Sheet). Importantly,
the White House announcement confirms their intention that this will be the last
extension.
It was also announced, as NMHC has advocated, that the administration will undertake a government-wide effort to expedite the
distribution of the $46 billion in emergency rental assistance (ERAP)
appropriated by Congress to residents and housing providers. Chief among
these measures are:
- Bulk
Payments. Treasury will clarify how grantees can collect bulk data from
housing providers covering multiple residents and then bundle payments
for multiple eligible residents into a single disbursement.
- Reduce
Confusion, Burdens, and Delays. Recognizing that differences in locally
imposed requirements operating in the same region are slowing the flow
of rental aid, urging grantees in neighboring areas to collaborate to
develop consistent or complementary policies to avoid unnecessary
confusion or burdens for families or housing providers seeking aid.
- Identifying
Grantee Best Practices. Treasury will highlight programs that are reducing documentation
barriers that keep eligible families from benefiting from ERA. This
could include automating application processing and approaches for
verifying income to simplify and speed eligibility determinations, such
as leveraging fact-specific proxies like area median incomes.
As NMHC noted in our statement today in response to the
extension, the continuation of a nationwide, one-size-fits-all, federal
eviction moratorium is out of step with the significant progress made in
controlling COVID-19 and restoring the economy. Instead of this blanket
federal policy, this pandemic has already shown that targeted, efficient
relief works.
Following suit with a recent NMHC industry principles
effort, the extension announcement has been paired with a number
of eviction mitigation measures intended to keep renters stably housed. NMHC looks forward to working with policymakers to implement workable solutions for both renters and housing providers. Importantly, we will work to ensure eviction mitigation efforts are practical and economically viable while making certain that rental assistance funds remain focused on direct payments to those in need.
And although this transition away from unstainable moratoriums is a step in the right direction in terms of ensuring the long-term health of the apartment industry and our renters, NMHC’s advocacy work is not yet done.
As our country emerges from the financial distress brought on
by the COVID-19 pandemic, the stability of our sector has never been more
critical. How our nation recovers will undoubtedly impact the country’s
further exacerbated housing affordability crisis and overarching housing
equity and opportunity goals.
We remain committed to working with officials to ensure the historic, $46 billion investment in ERAP makes it into the hands of those in need. Just as we successfully advocated for full funding of this program, we will continue to advocate for its timely disbursement.
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