Anxious tenants await assistance as evictions resume

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Six months after Congress approved spending tens of billions of dollars to bail out renters facing eviction, South Carolina was just reaching its first tenants. All nine of them.

Like most states, it had plenty of money to distribute — $272 million. But it had handed out just over $36,000 by June. The pace has since intensified, but South Carolina still has only distributed $15.5 million in rent and utility payments as of Aug. 20, or about 6% of its funds.

“People are strangling on the red tape,” said Sandy Gillis, executive director of the Hilton Head Deep Well Project, which stopped referring tenants to the program and started paying overdue rent through its own private funds instead.

The struggles in South Carolina are emblematic of a program that has fallen victim in many states to bureaucratic hurdles, political inertia and unclear guidance at the federal level.

The concerns about the slow pace intensified Thursday, after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some 3.5 million people in the U.S. as of Aug. 16 said they face eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

“The Supreme Court decision undermines historic efforts by Congress and the White House to ensure housing stability during the pandemic,” Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said.

The Treasury Department said this week that just over $5.1 billion of the estimated $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance —  only 11% — has been distributed by states and localities through July.

Nearly a million households have been served and 70 places have gotten at least half their money out, including several states, among them Virginia and Texas, according to the Treasury.

“In Massachusetts, the Baker administration must expedite the disbursement of these federal emergency rental assistance funds,” said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley last week.

The Treasury Department has repeatedly tweaked its guidance to encourage states and local governments to streamline the distribution of funds. The Biden administration has also asked states to create eviction diversion programs to resolve disputes before they reach the courts.

“There is no question we are seeing a level of excessive caution in getting the money out that does not seem to reflect either the flexibilities Treasury has provided or the fact we are facing a true public health and eviction emergency,” said Gene Sperling, who is charged with overseeing implementation of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3Dsktp9