States and municipalities are supposed to receive the emergency rental assistance funds by January 27, 2021.  Some have begun receiving funds as early as Friday, January 22, 2021.  This is good news for renters and landlords – applications opening soon!

In this video, Vitaliy discusses the latest updates regarding emergency rental assistance published on the U.S. Department of the Treasury website.

Funds will be distributed to each state (and/or local government which has a population of at least 200,000 people) on a pro-rata basis based on each state’s population within 30 days of the signing of the Act into law. States will then distribute the funds to applicants. However, no state can receive less than $200 million.

The states and local governments were required to submit applications to the U.S. Department of the Treasury by January 12, 2021. If they failed to timely submit, they would not be eligible (according to the information on the Treasury Department’s website).
90% of the funds must go toward “financial assistance” (as described in previous slide). 10% of the funds can go toward “housing stability services,” which include “case management and other services related to the” outbreak which are “intended to help keep households stably housed.“ Financial assistance cannot initially exceed 12 months of rent payments. 3 additional months may be provided “only if necessary to ensure housing stability for a household” (subject to the availability of funds).

Households who have at least one member who has been unemployed for at least 90 days preceding the application for rental assistance and where the household income is less than or equal to 50% of median household income in the area, will receive priority. The eligibility criteria for everyone else are: 80% of median household income and a hardship resulting from the pandemic.