Approximately $30 billion in emergency rental assistance had been spent or obligated by the end of February.
in court last summer did not materialize. Officials point to multiple efforts to help millions of people stay in their homes, including the $46 billion in rental relief funneled through state and local governments, which has amounted to more than 4.7 million payments to help people avoid evictions during the pandemic.
According to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, eviction filings remain well below normal, pre-pandemic levels. Their researchers suggested this could be in part due to the emergency rental assistance. Treasury Department data showed more thanwas delivered to very-low-income households last year and many of those recipients were people of color and women.
As the money runs out, officials are pushing for state and local governments to use other federal funds to help struggling renters and to bolster other housing efforts. The American Rescue Plan included $350 billion in money for state and local governments which can go toward this effort, officials said.