Republican states send back millions in federal housing aid, leaving some rural renters at higher risk of eviction

The federal government sent $46 billion in pandemic housing aid to states, preventing an estimated 1.3 million evictions, but much has been left unspent by Republican-controlled state and local governments. That has put rural renters at a higher risk of losing their homes.

"Now, after repeated warnings from the Treasury for states to act quickly or risk losing funds, the Biden administration is yanking some of the unused money back and sending it to more populous states that are eager for it," Pranav Baskar reports for The Boston Globe. "In March, the Treasury reclaimed $377 million in rental aid, including $11 million from Nebraska, $45.3 million from Montana, and more than $39 million from West Virginia. North Dakota returned nearly half its funds. The federal government then sent that money to New York, California, and New Jersey — states that clamored for more help to weather a severe housing crisis."

Some housing experts believe the government gave rural states more aid money than they needed, but some advocates say it's not that rural areas don't need the money, just that politics and poor infrastructure kept the money from being distributed, Baskar reports. Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska "has declined to spend $120 million in federal housing assistance funds, claiming the aid risks turning Nebraska into 'a welfare state'," Baskar reports.

The National Low-Income Housing Coalition told Baskar that most states have used most of the first round of funds, but "Fifteen states are still sitting on big piles of money: Republican-controlled Ohio and Georgia have approved a little more than one-third of their first round of funding, and have yet to dip into the second. In South Dakota, only 10 percent of the first batch of $120 million in rental assistance reached households," Baskar reports. "Congress is unlikely to replenish the program. So Treasury officials are telling states to put other federal funds from the trillions in Covid aid that’s been disbursed in recent years toward affordable housing and eviction prevention. But advocates doubt state officials would redirect the funds to other housing efforts if they’re opposed to using them for eviction prevention."