The Biden administration has spent nearly a third of funds allocated to prevent the eviction of home tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic within two weeks, as some 12 million Americans are at risk of missing rent payments by next month, the Treasury Department said Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2021) The Biden administration has spent nearly a third of funds allocated to prevent the eviction of home tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic within two weeks, as some 12 million Americans are at risk of missing rent payments by next month, the Treasury Department said Friday.
Reporting on the status of the $21.6 billion Emergency Rental Assistance program, the Treasury said it distributed $6.1 billion in less than two weeks after the fund was established.
"Nearly 7 million Americans reported being behind on rent in the second half of April 2021, and more than 40 percent of those renters worry that they could be evicted sometime in the next two months," the department said in a statement. "There are almost 12 million Americans who lack confidence that they can make next month's rent."
Evictions can have long-lasting consequences for families potentially disrupting school, worsening health, displacing neighborhood networks of support and making it more difficult to find safe, affordable housing in the future, the department added.
"The pandemic has exacerbated America's already severe housing affordability crisis, threatening the security and livelihoods of families and landlords through no fault of their own," Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in the statement. "Treasury is committed to providing direct, rapid support to those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing the deep disparities in our housing systems that threaten our economic recovery."
While US landlord-tenant law has improved dramatically in recent history, it still fails to protect tenants from broad injustice and lasting harm, as eviction processes vary from state to state, data shows.
In some states, landlords engage in so-called serial-eviction-filing with the intent not to remove tenants, but to collect rent and additional fees that leave tenants to foot bills that could include as much as $180 in fines and fees per filing. The action also leaves damaging eviction filing marks on the record of such tenants, making it harder for them to obtain credit or new tenancy approvals in the future, data shows.
The Eviction Lab, an advocacy group for tenants, found that in some states, households facing eviction had notices filed repeatedly against the same address, raising costs by 20 percent each time.
