June 24, 2021

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Emergency Rental Assistance Fact Sheet 

Treasury Announces Further Action 

to Support Housing Stability for Renters at Risk of Eviction 

Today, as part of a broader interagency effort to support renters and prevent evictions, Treasury took new 

steps to continue supporting the rapid deployment of Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) by states, 

territories, localities and tribal governments. These steps – including new Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQs) to help grantees with implementation, as well as published promising practices – will build on 

prior actions to provide ERA grantees with the tools they need to deliver relief to renters in need.

By February 10, 2021, the US Treasury Department had paid all of the $25 billion made available by the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 to states, territories, localities and tribes for the purpose of 

providing emergency rental assistance to eligible households in their jurisdictions. As directed in the 

law, Treasury has also made available 40 percent – more than $8.6 billion – of the additional funding for

states, territories and localities for emergency rental assistance provided in the American Rescue 

Plan. Prior to this year, few governments had robust programs for delivering this type of rental assistance, 

and none were operating at the scale now made possible by ERA resources. In recent months, grantees

have hired staff, engaged contractors, developed web portals and established policies and procedures, to 

implement these programs. Now, many programs are ramping up their deployment of funds, building a 

set of promising practices that all grantees can implement to meet the needs of their renters – and today’s 

announcement is designed to support that ramp-up.

Summarized below, Treasury’s updated FAQs offer additional clarity for grantees and work in concert 

with guidance and actions being taken by other federal agencies. 

• Strongly encourage partnerships with courts to actively prevent evictions and develop 

eviction diversion programs. Emergency Rental Assistance funds can be used to help families 

at-risk of eviction remain in their homes, including working with courts to connect such families 

and their landlords with mediation and emergency rental assistance resources, engaging providers 

of housing stability services for active support, and working directly with court administrators to 

facilitate eviction diversion programs. New Treasury FAQs also make clear that funds from the 

State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds can be used to support these activities and a wide range of 

other eviction prevention and housing stability services.

• Help families experiencing homelessness gain access to assistance. For vulnerable families that 

do not have a current rental obligation—which is a requirement for emergency rental assistance 

eligibility—Treasury is creating a commitment letter process to help those families gain access to 

assistance. ERA can help families who have lost, or are at imminent risk of losing, their housing, 

by paying for relocation assistance, prospective rent, security deposits, and temporary hotel 

accommodations.

• Drive towards equal access by removing language and cultural barriers in securing 

emergency rental assistance. Treasury is strongly encouraging grantees to provide culturally and 

linguistically-relevant housing stability services and to conduct outreach in multiple languages so 

that eligible families do not face unnecessary barriers to access. Grantees who cannot provide 
such services themselves should be engaging partners with the capacity to do so to ensure equal 

access to emergency rental assistance for all eligible households. 

• Provide a streamlined payment option for utility providers and large landlords to make 

accessing emergency rental assistance on behalf of multiple tenants easier and more 

attractive. Treasury is clarifying how grantees may achieve economies of scale by obtaining 

information in bulk from utility providers and landlords with multiple units to help speed the

determination of household eligibility and to bundle, in a single payment, approved amounts for 

the benefit of multiple eligible tenants.

• Encourage grantee coordination to reduce the burdens, and delays in providing assistance 

created by differences in locally-imposed requirements among programs operating in the 

same regions. Grantees providing services to overlapping or neighboring areas should 

collaborate to develop consistent or complementary policies to avoid unnecessary confusion or 

burdens for families or landlords seeking aid. 

• Lifting up grantees implementing effective practices to ensure that assistance quickly 

reaches the renters who need it most. Treasury is highlighting “promising practices” inspired 

by successes achieved in the field, including partnerships with local court systems and legal 

services to prevent evictions and housing instability; options for reducing documentation barriers 

that might keep eligible families from accessing ERA; and application procedures that speed 

eligibility determinations through increased reliance on automation and fact-specific proxies.

Today’s announcement follows on efforts Treasury has taken over recent months – in consultation with 

grantees, tenant advocates and property owners – to speed the provision of relief. In March 2021, 

Treasury substantially revised ERA program rules to provide grantees with flexibility and encourage 

rapid assistance. On May 7, Treasury announced the launch of the second round of Emergency Rental 

Assistance made available under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021and made significant additional 

updates to program rules to allow grantees to speed assistance to eligible households. Feedback from 

grantees indicates that Treasury’s guidance has accelerated the pace of funds being used to support renters 

-- for example, numerous state and local grantees have implemented fact-specific proxies as described in 

Treasury’s FAQs to speed up income verification, which is often the most time-consuming part of the 

eligibility verification process. 

The promising practices published today are reflected in the ramp-up of activity in the field, with the 

number of households receiving rental assistance growing substantially in May compared to prior months. 

Treasury expects continued acceleration of assistance – particularly before this fall when Treasury will 

have a statutory obligation to reallocate funds from grantees who fail to meet the ERA legislation’s 

funding obligation deadlines.