What do you need to know about American Rescue Plan uses for housing?

Authored by Monique Caston

There are several funding sources in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), including Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF), to finance housing needs in your community. Below are some resources to consider:

Housing ($42 billion)

Title III  of the ARP appropriates emergency funding to assist with mitigating housing-related hardships of those that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Just over half of that is  Emergency Rental Assistance, while nearly $10 billion is earmarked for the  Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF)* and an additional $5 billion is for  homelessness assistance and supportive services programs.

To receive FRF allocations, state, local, tribal and territorial government agencies are required to submit a request for funds through the U.S. Department of Treasury's (Treasury)  submission portal.  Additionally, $19.53 billion is set aside to support  non-entitlement units  of local government (NEUs)  with populations under 50,000. Treasury will allocate funding for NEUs directly to states and territories, which will then distribute funds to eligible NEUs within their region. Each state and territory will have its own defined funding request process that NEUs must follow to receive FRF payments. At this time, there is no deadline for state, local, tribal and territorial government agencies to apply for FRF allocations; funding requests are being received on a rolling basis. However, individual states and territories may have set deadlines for NEUs to request FRF payments.

Eligible uses

FRF  allocations may be used  in response to the negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 public health emergency. To address the immediate economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing insecurity, in addition to emergency rental and mortgage assistance, FRF funds can also be used for housing counseling, expenses related to housing, supportive services and towards the  development and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing.

For more information, or to learn how Baker Tilly’s public sector specialists can help your organization, contact our team.