Finger-pointing follows Treasury decision to withhold assistance funds
A year-and-a-half-long rental relief program is likely coming to an end soon, state officials announced last week, after the U.S. Treasury left New Hampshire out of the latest round of funding.
Housing advocates are urging the state to develop and present a backup plan before the federal funding runs out on Dec. 29. A September investigation by the Granite State News Collaborative found that 750 to 900 people receiving rental assistance are residing in hotels due to a lack of available apartments.
“I just hope that we can come together, identify where the resources are, and make sure we’re addressing the most urgent situation, so we don’t see a spike in homelessness right before winter,” said Elissa Margolin, director of Housing Action NH, an affordable housing advocacy organization.
But state leaders say they aren’t planning on a major replacement effort should the program end. “The state is not necessarily going to be putting forward hundreds of millions of dollars in rental assistance as we continue forward,” said Gov. Chris Sununu. “Our dollars need to go to ... new buildings,” he added, referring to a separate program to boost rental housing construction.
New Hampshire’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program has been helping pay rent and utility bills for low-income New Hampshire residents since March 2021. But the program has relied on a steady stream of federal funds from two bills passed by Congress during the pandemic.
On Oct. 18, a published list by the Treasury revealed that New Hampshire was not among the 28 states that are continuing to secure funding for a pandemic-era housing assistance program. Due to the likely end in funding, the NH Housing Finance Authority has paused new applications for rental relief, the agency announced last week.
‘Process is ongoing’
The development has prompted a flurry of finger-pointing. When first announcing the federal decision, Sununu blamed the Treasury Department, which he said was unfairly abandoning New Hampshire families without warning. Democrats have turned the focus back on Sununu, contending that the lack of approval by the Treasury was prompted by the state’s slow rollout of housing funds in 2021.
Advocates for housing say that state of ficials and lawmakers need to find backup funding to help the families currently receiving rental assistance.
New Hampshire has so far distributed nearly $231 million in funds through the rental assistance program, which has been funded in two tranches from two separate congressional Covid-19 aid bills in Dec. 2020 and March 2021. But New Hampshire’s program did not have a smooth rollout. The state struggled to quickly distribute the first amount of funding, known as ERA 1, as tenants and landlords became bogged down in paperwork requirements and turnaround times suffered.
When Congress passed the second tranche in 2021, known as ERA 2, it eased some of those barriers and broadened who was eligible. New Hampshire officials transitioned to those funds, relaunching the program in 2021 and working to get the money out more quickly.
The first round of funding, with its more stringent requirements, was largely left behind. In March, the U.S. Treasury reclaimed nearly $19 million that the state had not spent from ERA 1, opting instead to distribute it to other states.
As it moved over to its faster program, the state continued to apply for and re ceive more funding for ERA 2. The October announcement was the first time the state was not granted its request for $67 million.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and other Democrats argue that the state’s eagerness to switch to ERA 2 and leave ERA 1 funds unspent led to the $18.7 million clawback in March and could be the reason additional funds weren’t awarded this month.
“The reason that the U.S. Treasury has declined to fulfill your request to reallocate ERA 1 funds at the last minute is in all likelihood due to your own failure to spend these funds effectively when you had the opportunity,” wrote Shaheen in an Oct. 21 letter to Sununu.
Sununu blames the Treasury for failing to work with the state on its request and not communicating the reasons for its decision.
Margolin said the end of the relief program could prompt an overdue reckoning.
“This is urgent when you have 700 families living in a hotel, and the resources to cover their hotel stay is going to disappear in the middle of a school year for kids,” she said. “It’s not good.”
This story was originally produced by the NH Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NH Business Review to republish its reporting.
