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NCSHA Statement on New Treasury Department Guidance for Emergency Rental Assistance Program

Published on August 25, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC — The National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA) commends the Biden – Harris Administration for announcing today new flexibilities for state and local governments in administering the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) that states, counties, cities, and Indian tribes had been pressing the administration for since May.

“The flexibilities provided by the Treasury Department are largely responsive to recommendations ERAP administrators have been urging the administration to adopt for months,” said NCSHA Executive Director Stockton Williams. “We are pleased that Treasury is relaxing federal requirements that had slowed some ERAP grantees’ delivery of funds. The revised rules will enable state, local, and tribal governments to further accelerate the delivery of much-needed rent relief.”

The new policies will allow grantees to use self-attestation to document all eligibility requirements and clarify that grantees may rely on self-attestation alone to document household eligibility. NCSHA and other organizations representing grantees have identified documentation requirements as one of the most significant barriers to accelerating the processing of applications.

Organizations representing grantees also have pressed Treasury to allow them to make bulk payments to larger landlords and utility providers more efficiently. Treasury’s new rules allow this to happen.

Data Treasury released today shows ERAP grantees are continuing to accelerate the distribution of relief funds, having served 15 percent more households in July than they did in June and more than double the number of households served in May.