Two U.S. cities—Santa Monica, CA and Evanston, IL—recently achieved important milestones in their plans to compensate Black residents whose ancestors were directly harmed by racist housing and land use policies.
More members of Congress must raise homeownership disparities and community reinvestment as a priority in the Build Back Better agenda, displaying their support for programs that acknowledge and strive to dismantle racist housing and land use policies or eliminate their lasting, discriminatory effects.
To help tenants stay in their homes, local and federal policymakers must advance effective solutions like right-to-counsel programs, which ERAP funds can support. Such programs help tenants secure representation to fight evictions, a step toward equity that many local governments have shown can reduce housing…
The Treasury Department recently published guidance that calls on ERA administrators to reevaluate their programs, signaling an opportunity for advocates to influence how programs in their jurisdiction adapt to the stronger requirements.
December's COVID relief package offers $25 billion in rental assistance to states, but the limited funding still forces administrators to make difficult decisions about who “deserves” relief most and may increase administrative burden in the process.