60,000 Americans to lose their rental assistance and risk eviction unless Congress acts

By JESSE BEDAYN Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn she prayed In ensuing nights she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee Those walls were realizable through a federal activity that pays rent for chosen families and individuals fleeing homelessness or domestic violence Espinal was fleeing both But the project Urgency Housing Vouchers is running out of money and expeditiously Funding is expected to be used up by the end of next year according to a letter from the U S Department of Housing and Urban Advance and obtained by The Associated Press That would leave tens of thousands across the country scrambling to pay their rent It would be among the largest one-time losses of rental assistance in the U S analysts say and the ensuing evictions could churn these people after several years of rebuilding their lives back onto the street or back into abusive relationships To have it stop would absolutely upend all the progress that they ve made revealed Sonya Acosta plan analyst at the Center on Budget and Plan Priorities which researches housing assistance And then you multiply that by households she stated The venture launched in by then-President Joe Biden as part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act was allocated billion to help pull people out of homelessness domestic violence and human trafficking People from San Francisco to Dallas to Tallahassee Florida were enrolled among them children seniors and veterans with the expectation that funding would last until the end of the decade But with the ballooning cost of rent that billion will end far faster Last month HUD sent letters to groups dispersing the money advising them to manage your EHV operation with the expectation that no additional funding from HUD will be forthcoming The activity s future rests with Congress which could decide to add money as it crafts the federal budget But it s a relatively expensive prospect at a time when Republicans who control Congress are dead set on cutting federal spending to afford tax cuts Democratic Rep Maxine Waters who championed the plan four years ago is pushing for another billion infusion But the organizations lobbying Republican and Democratic lawmakers to reup the funding recounted the AP they aren t optimistic Four GOP lawmakers who oversee the budget negotiations did not respond to AP requests for comment We ve been narrated it s very much going to be an uphill fight reported Kim Johnson the inhabitants initiative manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition Espinal and her two daughters aged and are living on one of those vouchers in a three-bedroom apartment with an over monthly rent an amount extremely demanding to cover without the voucher Four years ago Espinal fought her way out of a marriage where her husband controlled her decisions from seeing her family and friends to leaving the apartment to go shopping When she spoke up her husband revealed she was wrong or in the wrong or crazy Isolated and in the haze of postpartum depression she didn t know what to believe Every day little by little I started to feel not like myself she stated It felt like my mind wasn t mine When notices arrived in March seeking about in back rent it was a shock Espinal had quit her job at her husband s urging and he had promised to cover family expenses Police reports documenting her husband s bursts of anger were enough for a judge to give her custody of their daughter in Espinal announced But her future was precarious She was alone owed thousands of dollars in back rent and had no income to pay it or sponsorship her newborn and teenage daughters Financial aid to prevent evictions during the pandemic kept Espinal afloat paying her back rent and keeping the family out of shelters But it had an expiration date Around that time the Crisis Housing Vouchers effort was rolled out targeting people in Espinal s situation A leading cause of family homelessness is domestic violence in New York City stated Gina Cappuccitti director of housing access and stability services at New Destiny Housing a nonprofit that has connected domestic violence survivors to the voucher scheme Espinal was one of those and moved into her Brooklyn apartment in Related Articles Is it time to break up with your real estate agent Letters We need St Paul councilors with business sense Long-awaited Tanners Lake progress plan in Oakdale includes apartments townhomes Bernice King reflects on the Fair Housing Act made law after her father s killing St Paul City Council gets an earful on rent control tenant protections The relief went beyond finding a secure place to live she noted I gained my worth my sense of peace and I was able to rebuild my identity Now she announced she s putting aside money in event of the worst Because that s my fear losing control of everything that I ve worked so hard for