Congress has allocated enough money to end the eviction crisis

But they asked the states to hand it out.

Bad news: Americans owe $21.3b in total rent debt.

Good news: Congress made $46.5b in rent assistance available in the relief bills.

Bad news: Just $3.25b of that money has been handed out, with 94% unspent.

Fucking terrible news: The eviction moratorium just expired.

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/eviction-crisis-is-a-rental-assistance-crisis/

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, the eviction tragicomedy was blamed on unforced errors — CDC promises not to extend the moratorium, Kavanaugh’s judicial cruelty, Biden’s month of inaction, Congress’s failure to act — but none of that would matter if relief got to renters.

Now, as the CDC moves to partially restore the eviction moratorium, we should focus on preventing evictions once it expires (again): let’s get the $43.25b that Congress says renters are eligible for into their hands.

To do that, we need to understand the backlog. The first problem is that the money was given to the states and cities to disburse to renters, and the states don’t have renter relief agencies sitting around waiting to spring into action once…