Four months after 'emergency' program for tenants created, money hasn't flowed in NC

The state is struggling to open a rental assistance program. Gov. Roy Cooper's administration says legislative rules have complicated things.

Posted 7:26 p.m. Apr 23, 2021 — Updated 8:16 p.m. Apr 23, 2021

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Four months after Congress approved hundred of millions of dollars in emergency assistance for renters, the state of North Carolina hasn't opened its program to applicants who could use that money to cover rent and utilities.

Forty-one other states have, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit tracking the issue.

Gov. Roy Cooper's administration says incomplete federal guidance on the program's rules, and spending caps that the North Carolina General Assembly added on top of those rules in early March, complicate the rollout. A previous version of the program, which didn't have to abide by all of those rules, was marked by complaints that payments came slow.

The administration says it has hired 200 specialists to run the program and 60 call center staffers, all of whom are being trained. But there's no announced date to start accepting applications for $546 million in federal funding the state has on hand.

At least some local versions of the program, funded by the same federal stimulus bill that passed in December but run by the state's larger counties and municipalities, have opened. Wake County and Raleigh started taking applications March 8 for the $33 million they got for the program, and they already have 2,500 applicants, a spokeswoman said.

The local versions of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program don't face county-by-county spending caps the legislature added for the state's version, though, and the Cooper administration complained when the caps were added, predicting a slow down.

The rule is meant to ensure money gets spent statewide, not just in areas with the bureaucratic infrastructure in place to make funding flow faster, sponsoring Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said. But keeping track of the expected spending in 100 counties and shutting off applications once they've likely soaked up a county's allotment "throws a wrench" into things, according to the head of state's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which runs the program.

Even without the caps, the program planned to focus on areas of the state that didn't get local grants, which went to six municipalities and 12 counties, program spokeswoman Bridget Munger said this week.

Munger said the administration hopes the county caps will be lifted before the program launches. Hise said he's been in talks about the issue, but he thinks guardrails are needed. As for timing, Hise's initial legislation already called for a review of the caps in mid-May, and with three week's to go, "none of the money's gone out," he said.

History shows high demand. A previous version of the program, the Housing Opportunities and Preventing Evictions, or HOPE, program, was open for four weeks before the Office of Recovery and Resiliency determined all of the money set aside was spoken for. Actually paying that money to landlords and utility companies is taking longer than expected.

As of this week, the HOPE program had awarded $133.2 million to help some 36,300 households with rent or utilities, officials said. But is had paid only $124.6 million of that.

There's a national eviction moratorium through the end of June, and once someone gets an award letter, the state's promise to pay is supposed to protect tenants from eviction or utility shutoffs. But WRAL News heard from a number of frustrated landlords over the winter, as well as tenants fearful they'd be on the street if the money didn't flow faster.

Those calls have slacked now, but some are still waiting.

"Our landlord has become irate at us and has threatened eviction, and we don't know what to do," Wayne Thornton said in an email this week. "I am a single father trying to stay afloat."

The second round of the program will be much larger and more complicated. It has new rules written by Congress and the U.S. Treasury, with the 100-county caps layered on by the General Assembly. The legislature also cut the amount the Cooper administration could use to cover administrative costs, capping it at 5 percent.

"(These) policies mean that, though this new funding is almost five times the size of the HOPE program ... it will be administered with even fewer supports," the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in a statement Friday.

Final guidance for the program is still pending from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, but the department has published several updates, including a 10-page "Frequently Asked Questions" document for state and local governments running the programs.

"At this point, grantees have a good working idea of how to approach the Treasury ERA program – 41 states have opened their programs already," Housing Coalition Chief Executive Diane Yentel said in statement.

The governor said during a routine coronavirus briefing this week that he wants the program open for new applicants "as quickly as possible, because we need to get help to people as quickly as possible."

Munger said the Office of Recovery and Resiliency wants things to run smoothly once it gets underway.

"While we await final guidance at both the federal and state levels, we are taking every step we can to be ready to implement a robust and efficient second phase of the HOPE Program for very-low income renters in our state," she said in an email.

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