{"id":5242,"date":"2021-05-26T11:49:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T11:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5242"},"modified":"2021-05-26T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T11:49:12","slug":"what-happened-to-the-45-billion-in-rent-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5242","title":{"rendered":"What happened to the $45 billion in rent relief?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Estimates about the amount of back rent owed across the country range from $8.4 billion to $52.6 billion<\/a>, meaning that the $45 billion allocated should cover the vast majority of need, especially considering that renters have indirectly received other forms of aid from the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of renters have<\/em> figured out how to make rent payments. According to the National Multi-Family Housing Council\u2019s rent payment tracker<\/a>, \u201c80.0 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by May 6.\u201d The previous month\u2019s data shows that by the end of the month, 95 percent of renters had made a full or partial rent payment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While 23.7 percent of renters have missed at least one payment over the past year, only 8.6 percent of renters have missed more than two payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that over 90 percent of renters are doing fine. In order to make those payments, many renters have had to deplete their savings, max out their credit cards, or take on loans from family, friends, or payday lenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not clear when rental assistance will reach those people.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Turner, a renter living in North Carolina, told Vox that his application for relief was initially accepted by a program in Wake County, but he was eventually denied aid after he paid rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe sold all of our belongings in our apartment to pay the rent,\u201d Turner told Vox. Now, he says, he\u2019s caught in an impossible place. If he doesn\u2019t pay his rent, he\u2019s at risk of receiving an eviction notice \u2014 a black mark on any renter\u2019s history that can make it harder to get housing in the future\u2014 but without showing proof that he\u2019s behind on his rent, he\u2019s unable to get help to stay solvent.”   
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Turner\u2019s story might seem to indicate that these programs are running low on funds, but all reports indicate that very little has actually made it into the pockets of at-risk renters. The Treasury Department is collecting data on how much states have allocated and to whom, but it has yet to be released. Tenant advocates I spoke with in California and Washington, DC, told me they didn\u2019t personally know anyone who had actually received aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia\u2019s Department of Community Affairs told me that it has distributed more than $4 million in rental assistance funding to landlords and tenants; the state has received over $552 million for that purpose. Delaware\u2019s State Housing Authority told me that it has distributed $40,000 in rental assistance \u2014 0.02 percent of its allocated funds. The Idaho Housing and Finance Association told me it has distributed $6.1 million of the $175 million it received from the December congressional rent relief allocation. Colorado\u2019s dashboard<\/a> shows $2.8 million has been approved from the $247 million it has received. Arizona\u2019s dashboard<\/a> shows $4.38 million has been disbursed out of the $289 million it has received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More has reached tenants \u2014 those state numbers don\u2019t include the spending done by programs at the county and city level \u2014 but itindicates the pace of these programs may not be fast enough to meet the urgent, coming crisis.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Time, knowledge, and bureaucracy: These are the challenges facing rent relief programs racing to dole out funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

States and localities have never before had to set up rent relief programs to distribute federal aid. To do so, programs needed to hire staff, set up websites, comply with any additional regulations or goals set by their state legislatures, and conduct outreach. Even with best efforts, most experts Vox spoke with were skeptical that it would have been possible for programs to move fast enough to get all the aid out the door before the end of June.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u201cOne of the things that this pandemic has made very clear is that there\u2019s a lot that we don\u2019t know about our housing market,\u201d Vincent Reina, director of the Housing Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. \u201cThe vast majority of cities don\u2019t have full registries of every owner in their city. … It shows we often don\u2019t know who owns properties and what\u2019s going on with these properties or which tenants are experiencing financial hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If states had been collecting detailed information about where struggling tenants are and how much back rent was accumulating, it\u2019s likely this process would have moved faster.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“there are some success stories. A representative from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, for instance, told me that by May 10 the state had paid out $18.2 million and 9,000 applications had been approved. When I checked back nine days later, the representative told me they had approved more than 1,300 additional applications and sent a total of $25.9 million in payments. The state\u2019s total allocation is $200 million, so they still have a way to go, but they credit their progress to the fact that they \u201coffered a unified application that was optimized for mobile\u201d as well as measuring how long it was taking to process applications and making it \u201cas easy as possible for applicants and landlords or utility companies\u201d to submit required documentation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22429430\/renters-rent-relief-eviction-moratorium-housing-market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Estimates about the amount of back rent owed across the country range from $8.4 billion to $52.6 billion, meaning that the $45 billion allocated should cover the vast majority of need, especially considering that renters have indirectly received other forms of aid from the federal government.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of renters have figured out how to make rent payments. According to the National Multi-Family Housing Council\u2019s rent payment tracker, \u201c80.0 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by May 6.\u201d The previous month\u2019s data shows that by the end of the month, 95 percent of renters had made a full or partial rent payment.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“While 23.7 percent of renters have missed at least one payment over the past year, only 8.6 percent of renters have missed more than two payments.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that over 90 percent of renters are doing fine. In order to make those payments, many renters have had to deplete their savings, max out their credit cards, or take on loans from family, friends, or payday lenders.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not clear when rental assistance will reach those people.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Turner, a renter living in North Carolina, told Vox that his application for relief was initially accepted by a program in Wake County, but he was eventually denied aid after he paid rent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold all of our belongings in our apartment to pay the rent,\u201d Turner told Vox. Now, he says, he\u2019s caught in an impossible place. If he doesn\u2019t pay his rent, he\u2019s at risk of receiving an eviction notice \u2014 a black mark on any renter\u2019s history that can make it harder to get housing in the future \u2014 but without showing proof that he\u2019s behind on his rent, he\u2019s unable to get help to stay solvent.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Turner\u2019s story might seem to indicate that these programs are running low on funds, but all reports indicate that very little has actually made it into the pockets of at-risk renters. The Treasury Department is collecting data on how much states have allocated and to whom, but it has yet to be released. Tenant advocates I spoke with in California and Washington, DC, told me they didn\u2019t personally know anyone who had actually received aid.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s Department of Community Affairs told me that it has distributed more than $4 million in rental assistance funding to landlords and tenants; the state has received over $552 million for that purpose. Delaware\u2019s State Housing Authority told me that it has distributed $40,000 in rental assistance \u2014 0.02 percent of its allocated funds. The Idaho Housing and Finance Association told me it has distributed $6.1 million of the $175 million it received from the December congressional rent relief allocation. Colorado\u2019s dashboard shows $2.8 million has been approved from the $247 million it has received. Arizona\u2019s dashboard shows $4.38 million has been disbursed out of the $289 million it has received.<\/p>\n

More has reached tenants \u2014 those state numbers don\u2019t include the spending done by programs at the county and city level \u2014 but it indicates the pace of these programs may not be fast enough to meet the urgent, coming crisis.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Time, knowledge, and bureaucracy: These are the challenges facing rent relief programs racing to dole out funds.<\/p>\n

States and localities have never before had to set up rent relief programs to distribute federal aid. To do so, programs needed to hire staff, set up websites, comply with any additional regulations or goals set by their state legislatures, and conduct outreach. Even with best efforts, most experts Vox spoke with were skeptical that it would have been possible for programs to move fast enough to get all the aid out the door before the end of June.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“\u201cOne of the things that this pandemic has made very clear is that there\u2019s a lot that we don\u2019t know about our housing market,\u201d Vincent Reina, director of the Housing Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. \u201cThe vast majority of cities don\u2019t have full registries of every owner in their city. … It shows we often don\u2019t know who owns properties and what\u2019s going on with these properties or which tenants are experiencing financial hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

If states had been collecting detailed information about where struggling tenants are and how much back rent was accumulating, it\u2019s likely this process would have moved faster.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“there are some success stories. A representative from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, for instance, told me that by May 10 the state had paid out $18.2 million and 9,000 applications had been approved. When I checked back nine days later, the representative told me they had approved more than 1,300 additional applications and sent a total of $25.9 million in payments. The state\u2019s total allocation is $200 million, so they still have a way to go, but they credit their progress to the fact that they \u201coffered a unified application that was optimized for mobile\u201d as well as measuring how long it was taking to process applications and making it \u201cas easy as possible for applicants and landlords or utility companies\u201d to submit required documentation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[617,588,409,483,217,270,437],"class_list":["post-5242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-bureaucracy","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-economics","tag-housing","tag-rent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}