PORTLAND, Ore. — Days after a federal moratorium on evictions expired, President Biden announced Tuesday announced a new, limited freeze on evictions. The move promises to keep the vast majority of the more than 6 million Americans behind on rent in their homes for, at least, two more months.
The new national ban on evictions runs through October 3 and covers every county in the U.S. experiencing what the CDC calls "substantial" and "high" spread of the coronavirus. As of Tuesday afternoon, that's most counties.
In Oregon and Washington, the federal roller coaster has had little to know real-life impact. Local and state protections remain in place, as long you've applied for assistance.
In Washington, assuming you've applied, you're covered until the end of September. Across Oregon, renters can show proof of their application to their landlord, and that protects them for the next 60 days. In Multnomah County, that proof protects a renter for 90 days.
The extensions come as state agencies across the country struggle to get assistance into renters' hands.
“We have confidence that we can get through those applications and make those payments available,” said Andrea Bell, director of housing stabilization for Oregon Housing and Community Services, the state agency in charge of dispensing the money.
Advocates aren’t so sure. Michael Havlik is the deputy executive director of Multifamily NW, a group that represents the interests of both renters and property owners. He points out most states, including Oregon and Washington, are dealing with massive backlogs.
In Oregon, a live data dashboard showed, as of Tuesday afternoon, Oregon has allocated $11.6 million of its total rent assistance budget of $204 million. That's roughly 5%. More than 20,000 households are still waiting for their money.
Havlik points out, the sluggish pace is putting pressure on landlords, too.
“Evictions are always a last resort,” he said. “We're all concerned that the rental assistance isn't reaching residents quickly enough.”
One reason could be the state's decision to switch software programs it uses to process these applications. Wednesday the Oregonian/OregonLive reported the state recently moved its rent assistance model over to a new centralized system, installed by software vendor Allita 360. The nearly $400,000 platform launched in May and has reportedly been sluggish since.
"Glitches in the system, coupled with an unprecedented need for assistance, have led to an alarming backlog in rental assistance applications," reported the newspaper.
Now, multiple housing advocates fear a fast-approaching federal deadline could make matters worse.
From the beginning, the feds have called on states to dole out at least 65% of their federal rent assistance funds by September 30th. State officials confirm, the U.S. Department of Treasury has said if that deadline is not met, the feds could take their housing dollars back and reallocate the money to a state or municipality that's made more progress.
In an interview Monday, Havlik said no one is sure if the feds will indeed make good on that threat.
"I don't know that I've had a clear answer on that," he said. "I do think that we need all of that funding to help Oregonians, and we can't lose any of it.
State officials told KGW Monday, they are not worried about that possibility. Officials noted the state has hired more than 60 “surge capacity” employees, largely courtesy of an outside vendor, to help them process applications faster.
“With the new added capacity to bring on a vendor to process up to 8,500 applications, to review applications and make payments directly, we would meet the 65% spenddown requirement. U.S. Treasury has also signaled that there would be an appeals process for communities who anticipate not meeting that deadline if that is necessary,” wrote Connor McDonnell, spokesman for the OHCS.
In the meantime, Washington is ramping up production, too. Officials have allocated roughly 11% of their rent assistance budget.
"We are confident that Washington will meet the threshold established by Treasury," wrote Penny Thomas, media relations manager with the state's Department of Commerce.
Click here to apply for rent assistance in Washington.
Click here to apply for rent assistance in Oregon.