Rhode Island Outperforms Over Half of States in Distributing Emergency Rental Assistance
Rental assistance is key to keeping families stably housed following a pandemic that has impacted many families’ income and expenses. The National Equity Atlas estimated that nationally, 5.9 million renter households — 15 percent of all renters — were behind on their rent payments in mid-August 2021. In Rhode Island, about 28% of renters reported that they could not keep up with their rent payments between September 15 and October 22, 2021 according to Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. So far, Rent Relief RI has distributed over $97 million in assistance to renters[1].
The December 2020 COVID-19 relief package included $25 billion in urgently needed emergency rental assistance for tenants with low incomes, establishing the Emergency Rental Assistance program (ERA) under the administration of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The American Rescue Plan Act enacted in March 2021, provides an additional $21.55 billion for ERA for a grand total of $46.55 billion in emergency rental assistance[2]. Rhode Island has received $352 million in ERA funds and they are being distributed through Rent Relief RI, administered by RIHousing.
According to data collected by theNational Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), Rhode Island is outperforming over 25 other states or jurisdictions in distributing Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA 1) funds, when compared to the other states and jurisdictions included in NLIHC’s data reporting[3]. Rhode Island has distributed approximately 41.1% of their ERA 1 funds to households. This puts Rhode Island ahead of 25 other states, outpacing some of our east coast neighbors like Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
In order to ensure that the rental aid reaches the lowest-income and most marginalized renters it is intended to help, NLIHC created the Ending Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) project. In August 2021 the Housing Network of RI (HNRI) was secured grant funding from NLIHC under their ERASE project to promote visible, accessible, and preventative emergency rental assistance and to work towards longer term measures to advance housing stability. As part of this grant funding, HNRI has proposed to do the following activities:
- Building on existing relationships, elevate public visibility and accessibility of the Rent Relief RI program by offering and/or enhancing community-based training and supporting expansion of culturally relevant outreach.
- Conduct focus groups to understand successes, challenges, and opportunities with ERA in the short and long term.
- Convene and staff the Housing Stability Task Force. The Housing Network of RI is partnering with United Way of RI to convene a diverse task force of individuals who represent landlords, government officials, tenants, and other important stakeholders to examine the eviction and displacement landscape in Rhode Island and propose policy and programmatic changes necessary to reduce evictions and promote stable tenancies.
Although Rent Relief RI is performing better than 50% of the nation’s ERA programs, more long-term solutions are needed to keep Rhode Islanders stably housed. In September, we submitted a proposal to invest $500 million of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds in affordable housing. As part of our proposal, we recommend $9 million for a permanent court-based eviction-diversion program that would assist tenants facing potential eviction for reasons beyond missed rent payments, which will remain a need beyond the current Rent Relief RI program and will offer help for a broader list of reasons. Because renters were cost burdened before the pandemic, Rhode Islanders will continue to need rental assistance beyond programs responding to the impact of COVID as rental prices continue to exceed fair market value. With ERA funds and long-term assistance seeded by RI’s ARP funds, Rhode Island renters may be able to find some relief in debt caused by pre-existing inequities and pandemic-related impacts on income, both in the short and long term.
For more information on RentRelief RI and how to apply, visit RentRelief RI.
References:
[1] Figure current as of 1/25/2022. Please check the link for the most up to date reporting number.
[2] NLIHC. Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Dashboard, https://nlihc.org/era-dashboard
[3] NLIHC ERA Spending Tracking. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RnHX7Ld7KJ_jgj8Sk52xjCygYRETwU-OthOGE3uduHM/edit#gid=1432075608. Data current as of January 3, 2022. On NLIHC’s ERA Spending Tracking table, users can go to the tab titled “State Spending” and filter column H “%ERA1 Approved or Paid to Households”
