After months of delays, OERAP is steadily distributing rental assistance funds, but the state may run out of money without more federal funds
The Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program (OERAP), plagued for months by technical glitches, staffing issues and poor communication with applicants, is now distributing funds full steam ahead. The issue, however, is the state may run out of money if the federal government doesn’t release more funds.
In an Oct. 6 press release, Executive Director of Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) Margaret Salazar announced OHCS is confident it exceeded both the benchmark for 65% of the funds committed and the 30% dispersed set by the U.S. Treasury for the federally dispersed emergency rental assistance (ERA) funds, making the state eligible for additional emergency rental assistance in the coming months.
OERAP applications opened May 19, but the program hit immediate roadblocks. The application system was flooded with more than 26,000 applicants in the first couple months after opening, according to OHCS representative Connor McDonnell. The immense and immediate backlog of applications highlighted the demand for those trying to avoid eviction or unmanageable back rent.
Oregon’s eviction moratorium expired June 30, adding to the urgency of the matter. Some cushion was provided, as renters receive 60 days of protection if they apply for OERAP, or other rent relief, and submit documentation to their landlord. The grace period is 90 days in Multnomah County.
As recently as Aug. 9, however, the OERAP weekly report dashboard showed not a single renter in Multnomah County had received aid. In fact, the vast majority of Multnomah County applications — 6,951 of the 9,367 complete applications — had not been viewed at all. At the time, $0 had been paid out in the most populous county in the state, despite the county already approving more than $1.56 million for the 238 applicants at the time.
STREET ROOTS NEWS: Multnomah County unsure when thousands will receive federal rent assistance
By early October, OERAP was in a vastly different state than the late summer months. The state says it exceeded the U.S. Treasury benchmarks for OERAP distribution, which, in theory, will qualify it for more emergency funding. Multnomah County, once lagging behind much of the state, has paid out $22.37 million in funding for rent and utilities, and promised an additional $22.08 million to households. More than 13,000 applications are now marked as complete.
How they turned it around
McDonnell said the state laid out a three-point plan in September for addressing the significant delays. The plan includes adding capacity through Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), leveraging all possible federal flexibilities and holding OHCS and local partners accountable.
McDonnell said the plan “will significantly speed up application processing.”
In August, OHCS hired vendor PPL to process 8,500 of the oldest applications in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. PPL has processed nearly all of those 8,500 applications, according to McDonnell. Last week, the state expanded PPL’s contract, adding an additional 37 staff.
New PPL staff will focus on counties struggling to process applications that have surpassed both the 60-day and 90-day windows.
Additionally, McDonnell said the state opted into all federal flexibilities that could ease the burden for renters needing to provide certain documentation. These flexibilities have not been consistently adopted across the 18 local partner agencies that are processing applications. OHCS sent a letter to the local partners in early October, notifying them the agency is amending their contracts to include clear expectations for immediately adopting all federal flexibilities allowed.
To increase accountability, McDonnell said OHCS set clear processing targets for itself and local partners.
“PPL is expected to process 500 per week, moving to 1,000 applications per week in the coming week; Metro area LPAs (local partner agencies) need to process 420 (to) 450 applications per week; and all other LPAs need to process 1,000 per week,” McDonnell said.
Even if these targets are met, McDonnell said the state estimates it will take between 10 and 13 weeks to process the batch of older applications.
The funds that came and went
The U.S. Treasury established two separate programs for emergency rental assistance; both of which Oregon received funding from. The first, ERA-1, provides up to $25 billion nationally under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the second, ERA-2, provides up to $21.55 billion nationally under the American Rescue Plan Act. Oregon has met benchmarks for ERA-1; no specific allocation guidelines have been given for ERA-2, as of yet.
Salazar said OERAP paid out $70.5 million to households for direct payments and housing stabilization services, allocated $55 million to households determined eligible by a local program administrator, and obligated $20 million in administrative funds by Sept. 30. A total of $145 million has been paid or allocated, which Salazar confirmed includes administrative fees.
Administrative fees as of Oct. 7 total $19,166,118, which McDonnell said is in alignment with U.S. Treasury guidance. The U.S. Treasury allows 10% of funds to be used for administration. McDonell said OHCS gave most of that resource to the local program administrators, specifically 85% of administrative fees, or 8.5% of the total ERA allocation.
According to the online dashboard for OERAP, the state has paid out or allocated 71% (including administrative fees) of the full $204 million awarded to the state for rent payments. OERAP, which also assists people behind on utility payments, received $280 million total from the federal government.
But OERAP’s lead may be short-lived. Salazar said OHCS is set to exhaust funding in the next three to six weeks.
“This program hit a nerve of unmet need, and we are learning the extent of that need now and are requesting additional ERA Funds from the U.S. Treasury,” Salazar wrote in the press release. “We estimate that if 1,000 (to) 2,000 additional ERA applications come in each week, that within (three to six) weeks, OHCS could be fully exhausted of ERA-1 and ERA-2 resources.”
For reference, Multnomah County still had 5,384 applications yet to be fully processed on Oct. 12.
McDonnell said OHCS sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury on Oct. 4, stating intent to request additional funds once the U.S Treasury outlines the official process and releases a form on Oct. 15.
Regardless, Salazar said renters should still apply for rental aid if they need it.
“We are encouraging renters in need to apply for assistance at https://ift.tt/3jlO4rX and are pleased that we are partnering with more than a dozen community-based organizations around the state to ensure that all eligible Oregon renters can access rental and utility assistance from Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, rural communities, those with limited technology access, Latino/a/x, Asian, and non-English speaking communities,” Salazar wrote in the press release.
Issues beyond funding
Another issue affecting OHCS and Multnomah County officials back in August is the application portal itself: Allita. The Allita portal has been at the center of OERAP delays since the beginning. Officials from both the state and county said the portal caused glitches, didn’t have the capacity for the number of applications being uploaded, and — for county departments and local partners — seemed to disrupt the systems already in place.
Denis Theriault, communications coordinator for the Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services, said in August that state officials mandated the new system hoping it would streamline the application process by funneling tenants to a single application portal, rather than requiring them to seek aid through nonprofits and community agencies across the state.
Instead, Theriault had said the technical issues in the system and exponentially increased applications led to massive delays in rental assistance.
“The portal, the challenge there is it’s a new portal,” Theriault told Street Roots in August. “Other states have tried it, like Rhode Island tried to use Allita. They did not keep it.”
Despite backlash from the county, the state was insistent on using the new system. And though the state will admit setbacks, Allita may be here for good.
“Standing up new software is no small feat. Typically you would be rolling out a software solution over the course of months or even years, but we had to do it within the matter of weeks. The good news is that, despite all those frustrations, applications are being process[ed], rent and utilities are being paid,” McDonnell told Street Roots on Monday.
The state is addressing the technical issues with Allita now, though.
“However, we also recognize it is a complex application and technical glitches have frustrated both renters and Community Action Agencies,” McDonnell said. “This is why we are modifying the program model for ERA 2 — that will require fewer hands touching the system so Community Action Agencies (such as Multnomah County Human Services) can focus on conducting outreach and providing application assistance to renters who need to apply for the program.”
When asked if the state is considering expanding their use of Allita, McDonnell defended the portal as necessary for helping counties meet federal regulations for ERA funding but didn’t address whether Oregon will use Allita for more than OERAP in the future.
“One of the reasons we created a statewide application was because it’s a federal program with specific regulations and data requirements,” McDonnell said. “So we needed to launch the software to adhere to data reporting. The access to good data has allowed the state to be transparent, provide a clear picture on progress, and make necessary changes.”
The state also hoped the portal would increase accessibility.
“In alignment with our values, we wanted to have a clear front door for tenants to access at oregonrentalassistance.org,” McDonnell said. “We looked into other statewide portal options for ERA-2 but believe the most judicious approach to ensure we can get money out the door as quickly as possible is to stay with the current centralized application system through [Allita].”
McDonnell said attempting to switch systems at this point would likely cause further delays.
“The amount of resources — time and money — it would take to create a new system is not feasible and not in the best interest of Oregon families,” McDonnell said. “It would take several weeks to months during a critical time when we need to be focused on processing applications.”
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2021 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404.
"Short" - Google News
October 21, 2021 at 07:02AM
https://ift.tt/3vJIBjP
Federal rent relief may be short-lived - Street Roots News
"Short" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QJPxcA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Federal rent relief may be short-lived - Street Roots News"
Post a Comment