Atlanta (AP) — Georgia authorities are struggling to distribute federal funds to prevent evictions of peasants and outline plans to speed up the delivery of money to landlords and lessors.
The improvement plan was submitted to the US Treasury last week. If they are not approved, the state is at risk of losing some of the $ 550 million allocated in the first round of federal rental aid.
State officials overseeing rent payments are developing tools to easily check if the lessor is already getting help, turning to college for workers at night and on weekends. Patrick Farr, director of the State Planning and Budget Department, said in a November improvement plan. 15.
They are also expanding their efforts to raise awareness about financing.
“The GRA program understands the urgency of providing rental and utility assistance to tenants, landlords and utility providers as soon as possible across the state,” Farr said.
Georgia is under pressure to improve the distribution of rental assistance.
By mid-November, less than 10 percent of $ 550 million had gone out to help state residents struggling to pay rent and utilities during a pandemic. This funding is part of Congress’s $ 46.5 billion rental aid approved for the US community, including $ 437 million to Georgia.
Nationally, more than $ 10 billion was spent by September 30, and the pace of spending recovered over the summer, according to the Treasury. Authorities have acknowledged the money that helped avoid the wave of evictions after the US Supreme Court in late August allowed the eviction of peasants to resume.
However, finance authorities can retrieve some of the money from late locations such as Georgia and redistribute it to the jurisdiction that delivered it to tenants and landlords early. According to this month’s report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, more than 30 states may be at risk of losing money.
However, the report noted that Georgia, Ohio, Arizona, and Tennessee were slow to pay aid and had a large renter population. Most states spent more than 10% of their initial quota by the end of September, with numbers rising from 71% to 90% in four high-performance states: New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. In the report.
An email to the Treasury on Friday to confirm the status of Georgia’s improvement plans was not returned immediately.
Tenants facing evictions of peasants in Georgia struggled to contact staff from a Georgia agency managing a rental assistance program in a protest last week, facing tedious demands for additional paperwork. He said it was returned to another agency.
In a plan to the Treasury, the state said it is steadily improving the pace of processing aid applications, predicting an increase in the number of households servicing and the amount to be distributed in each household. rice field. Next few months.
As of November 12, approximately 33,000 applications were pending, and it was expected that approximately $ 200 million would be required below the average payment per applicant of $ 6,300.
Bruce Marks, CEO of Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said many of the measures in the state’s improvement plan should have been implemented months ago. The NACA organized a protest last week.
“This is basic,” he said.
State officials said they face many obstacles to the implementation of the program, including changes to guidance from federal authorities and electronic portals that require constant updates.
Other parts of the state received their own rental funds, and the state initially did not process applications from these jurisdictions.
However, in August, state officials said the qualifications expanded state-wide and needed tools to ensure that profits did not overlap.
According to the improvement plan, we have identified the vendors that will provide the tool.
We also identified 13 regions across the state and assigned “outreach coordinators” to raise awareness of our support programs and find opportunities and ways to help people apply.
Georgia outlines plans to improve the slow pace of rental assistance | WGN Radio 720
Source link Georgia outlines plans to improve the slow pace of rental assistance | WGN Radio 720
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