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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Treasury Announces $30 Billion in Emergency Rental
Assistance Spent or Obligated with Over 4.7 Million Payments
Made to Households Through February 2022
March 30, 2022

Latest Reallocation Guidance Includes New Incentives to Urge State and Local Governments
to Fund Additional Eviction Diversion E�orts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that through
February 2022, state and local Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) grantees have made over
4.7 million payments to households and spent or obligated approximately $30 billion in
assistance of the programʼs total $46 billion. Treasury expects the vast majority of the
remaining funds to be deployed to households or paid to grantees by the middle of 2022. As
these emergency funds run out, Treasury is sharing its reallocation process for ERA2, the
programʼs expansion under the American Rescue Plan. Treasuryʼs approach to reallocating
ERA2 funds is designed to ensure as many low-income renters as possible have access to this
assistance during the pandemic.
Because relatively few funds are expected to be available for reallocation, these guidelines
include incentives to encourage state and local governments to commit additional funding –
including a portion of their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds – to assist more renters
and make continued investments in housing stability.
“In just one year, the Emergency Rental Assistance program built a national infrastructure for
eviction prevention that never existed before and has helped keep eviction rates well below
historic averages throughout the pandemic,” said Deputy Secretary Adeyemo. “As these
emergency funds run out, now is the time for state and local governments to leverage this
infrastructure to provide services like right-to-counsel programs and housing counselors that
will help families avoid economic scarring long a�er COVID-19 is in the rear-view mirror.”

The nationwide infrastructure that ERA has helped to create has led not only to millions of
renters receiving direct assistance, but also the creation of hundreds of new state and local
programs and partnerships with nonprofits and courts administering eviction diversion,
access to counsel, and other housing stability services. Establishing these services at a
national scale is paying o�. New analysis by Princeton Universityʼs Eviction Lab published
earlier this month found that millions of renters avoided the threat of eviction in 2021 due
to the federal governmentʼs serious and unprecedented interventions, in significant part
through the American Rescue Plan. It also found that low-income and majority-Black
neighborhoods that typically see a disproportionate share of eviction cases experienced
the largest absolute reduction in filings.
As recent demographic data released by Treasury shows, over 80% of assistance is
reaching the lowest income households – with approximately 40% of all primary
applicants receiving assistance self-identifying as Black and approximately 20% selfidentifying as Latino.
Today, Treasury announced guidance for the reallocation of ERA2 funds. In this guidance,
Treasury has worked to balance reallocating funds to grantees that are quickly running
out of funds even as the need for assistance remains significant with ensuring that renters
in states where funds have moved more slowly have an opportunity to receive assistance.
For this reason, Treasury will continue to prioritize reallocating funds within the same
state when possible, and where excess funds remain, it will provide them to areas with
significant demonstrated need and ability to provide assistance promptly. To date,
Treasury has reallocated more than $2 billion of ERA1 funds, the majority of which were

transferred voluntarily between grantees within the same state, with reallocated funds
generally going to higher-need areas and more diverse communities.
Treasuryʼs guidance also includes new incentives for state and local governments to
supplement their rental assistance programs and make long-term investments in eviction
prevention. Many state and local governments are already using a portion of their State
and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF), which provide $350 billion that can be used to
pursue a range of eviction prevention strategies, to make these types of investments.
According to Treasuryʼs latest SLFRF reporting data, state, local, and Tribal governments
budgeted over $3.75 billion for rent, mortgage, and utility assistance as well as eviction
prevention services, through the end of 2021. In reallocating ERA2 funds, Treasury will
prioritize grantees that have used other sources of funding, including SLFRF, to deliver
more rental and utility assistance. Treasury has also structured its ERA2 reallocation
process to preserve granteesʼ ability to obligate up to 10% of their ERA2 funds in the
coming months for housing stability services, including housing counselors, eviction
diversion programs, right-to-counsel programs, and other vital infrastructure that can be
leveraged to prevent evictions in the long term.
Other key elements of Treasuryʼs reallocation approach include:
• Reallocation of Remaining ERA1 Funds: Given the limited amount of ERA1 funds
remaining for reallocation, Treasury anticipates only one more round of ERA1
reallocation from state, local, and territorial granteesʼ initial allocations, which will
occur later this spring and be based on expenditure and obligation data through
March 31, 2022. Treasury intends to recapture a portion of unobligated funds from
grantees, leaving grantees with the amount of ERA1 funds they have spent in their
strongest quarter to date. This reallocation is intended to ensure that ERA1 funds will
be spent through by the statutory deadline of September 2022 while continuing to
direct excess funds to grantees with the greatest need.
• Key Principles of ERA2 Reallocation: As with ERA1 reallocation, ERA2 reallocation
will take place over multiple rounds, provide mitigation opportunities, and
prioritize keeping funds within the same state consistent with local needs. ERA2
funds available for reallocation will be distributed to grantees with significant
demonstrated need and ability to get funds to low-income renters. Under the ERA2
statute, Treasury may not reallocate funds that have already been paid out to

grantees. As a result, under the guidelines announced today, grantees that keep up
pace with the expenditure ratio thresholds and obligate just over half of their ERA2
funding in 2022 will receive their full allocation and avoid reallocation entirely.
• Additional details on the ERA2 reallocation process can be found on Treasuryʼs Fact
Sheet

and Treasury's guidance

.

February 2022 ERA Monthly data available here.
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