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3/9/2022

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo Highlights Emergency Rental Assistance Program in Memphis, Tennes…

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo Highlights
Emergency Rental Assistance Program in Memphis, Tennessee
on American Rescue Plan Anniversary Tour
March 8, 2022

Treasury announces roughly 4.3 million Emergency Assistance payments made to households
through January 2022
WASHINGTON — Today, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo traveled to
Memphis, Tennessee to highlight how American Rescue Plan funds have been used to keep
Americans in their homes during the pandemic. The Deputy Secretaryʼs trip, which comes a
year a er the American Rescue Plan Act was signed by President Biden, included discussions
with the City of Memphis and Shelby County Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program
about the impact these resources have had on thousands of Tennessee residents.
“Memphis and Shelby Countyʼs program is a story about a community working to use its rental
assistance dollars as e ectively as possible to achieve real results for families,” said Deputy
Secretary Adeyemo. “The way the program has integrated with the local courts system to
divert unnecessary evictions by giving those facing an eviction the opportunity access ERA
and providing free legal services is a model for the rest of the country.”
“Our goal in the City of Memphis is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can,
with as few barriers as possible,” said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. “Iʼm grateful for the
actions taken by city employees and our federal and county partners to bring rent and utility
assistance to those struggling the most through this pandemic.”
The Memphis and Shelby County ERA program has worked with the local court system to
create one of the strongest eviction diversion programs in the country. Through January 2022,
it has made more than 16,000 payments to households totaling $43.1 million. Their success is
especially impressive given that the courts li ed the federal eviction moratorium in Memphis
and its surrounding counties several months before it ended nationally.
Through January 2022, state and local ERA grantees made approximately 4.3 million payments
to households and spent or obligated well over $25 billion of ERA assistance. Treasury expects
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3/9/2022

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo Highlights Emergency Rental Assistance Program in Memphis, Tennes…

the vast majority of the remaining $21 billion to be deployed to households or paid to
grantees by the middle of 2022. Due to the Administrationʼs e orts to prevent evictions,
including the implementation of ERA programs, eviction filings have remained at roughly 60
percent of pre-pandemic averages in the five full months since the eviction moratorium ended
according to data from Princetonʼs Eviction Lab.
In his remarks, the Deputy Secretary emphasized that Treasury continues to urge states and
localities to dedicate a portion of their money from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
—a $350 billion program under the American Rescue Plan—to continue to fund rental
assistance, other eviction prevention programs, and expand the availability of a ordable
housing. Congress and Treasury gave states and localities significant flexibility over the use of
these funds so they can prioritize the areas of greatest need in their communities, and
Treasury has already seen many use these funds for housing programs and projects
nationwide.
January 2022 ERA Monthly Data available
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