The State received $247 million for rental and utility assistance through HR133 for Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA). This is far more than we spent for emergency rental assistance in 2020 and thus far in 2021 combined. We are confident that we will be able to help many more landlords and tenants over the next nine months.
With the additional support of HORNE, our administrative disaster firm, we have been able to increase the pace of EHAP and POP application review and approval. With the increased pace of funding approvals, we must transition to the federal funds sooner than we had expected. These federal funds require us to collect much more information from tenants, including income documentation and demographics, than we collected for the POP program.
Pause on Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP)
DOH’s online application system for EHAP will be paused this Friday. The system allowed us to accept applications for rental assistance and mortgage assistance supported by the funds from the State's legislative special session SB20B-002. Applications that are already submitted in EHAP will continue to be processed. New rental assistance applications will be processed in the new ERAP (Emergency Rental Assistance Program) online system or through local programs launched by the jurisdictions in the state that also received federal funds. We expect to open up EHAP again for mortgage assistance requests only when additional funds for mortgage assistance become through the American Rescue Plan.
