Six US States Get Additional $13Bln In Emergency Housing Aid Amid Pandemic - Treasury

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) The US Treasury Department said on Tuesday it was providing an additional $13 billion in emerging housing funds to jurisdictions in six states whose residents were struggling to pay rent amid continued struggles from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Treasury is happy to provide these state and local government programs with additional resources to support Americans in need of rental assistance," Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. "We are also committed to reallocating resources to ensure assistance reaches struggling tenants and landlords during the pandemic."

The six jurisdictions receiving the funds under the second wave of Emergency Rental Assistance, or ERA 2, will be Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, the island of Oahu in Hawaii, the city of Des Moines and Polk County in Iowa, Houston and Harris County in Texas, Leon County in Florida and New Orleans in Louisiana.

Prior to the latest disbursement, the Treasury had provided $8.6 billion under the ERA 2. In the first assistance program, dubbed ERA 1, it had allocated $25 billion to state, local, and tribal governments.

Aside from providing rental assistance, the Biden administration has asked Congress to extend a moratorium on evictions that expired in July, saying many renters still faced financial difficulties and those driven from their homes could face heightened risk from the more dangerous Delta variant of COVID-19.