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8/19/2021

READOUT: Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo’s visit to Maryland Emergency Rental Assistance grantee …

READOUT: Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo’s
visit to Maryland Emergency Rental Assistance grantee
August 18, 2021

WASHINGTON – Earlier today, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo participated
in a roundtable discussion hosted by Housing Initiative Partnership (HIP) in Hyattsville,
Maryland where he heard from tenants, landlords, community leaders and administrators of
Prince George’s County’s e ective Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program.
Despite having to build their program largely from scratch, Prince George’s County has
already distributed 83% of its first allotment of ERA funds to more than 3,200 Prince George’s
County tenants and landlords. Following Treasury’s February guidance encouraging
programs to reduce burdensome documentation requirements, the county now relies on
self-attestations and income-based proxies based on census tract data to determine
eligibility for about half of all applications. Program administrators said this allows them to
serve more people both because it speeds up the approval process and makes the program
more accessible to low-income communities.
Prince George’s County also adopted Treasury’s May guidance to distribute assistance
directly to tenants in cases where landlords are uncooperative. They prioritize applications
where the tenant is facing eviction and have developed relationships with legal aid services,
county judges, and the local sheri ’s department. All eviction notices now include
information about applying to the ERA program. They continue to look for creative ways to
increase awareness of the program, including launching a mobile clinic this fall to help
landlords and tenants sign-up.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0325

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