Lawmakers and housing advocates are struggling to figure out how to get billions of dollars in rental assistance to tenants who desperately need the help, even with the action taken Tuesday by the Biden administration to extend an eviction moratorium for most of the country, The Hill reported. Congress this year appropriated $46 billion for tenants and landlords in need, but only about $3 billion has reached the intended recipients. Concerns are now growing that unless a better method of distribution is developed, the U.S. will find itself in the same place two months from now when the new eviction ban expires. Similar to many facets of COVID-19 aid, state and local governments are finding it difficult to reach the hardest hit populations. Housing advocates across the country describe a complicated process that starts with putting the onus on tenants to apply for assistance. In many states, such as New York, the only way to access the application for rental assistance is online, an immediate hurdle for many since broadband internet access is often sparse in the very low-income areas that would benefit from the aid. “You need to be able to upload PDF documents in order to complete it. It’s a very long application that can take one to two hours to complete, and you have to do it all in one setting,” said Lucy Block, research and policy associate for the New York City-based Association of Neighborhood and Housing Development.
