NC should speed help to the 435,00 North Carolinians who are behind on rent

Last December, as North Carolina was hurtling toward an eviction tsunami, a diverse group of stakeholders met to brainstorm policy interventions. Thankfully, a crisis was temporally averted when Congress passed a second Covid-19 relief bill in late December that provided the states with $25 billion in rental assistance and extended the nationwide eviction moratorium.

The Emergency Rental Assistance program and its companion North Carolina legislation, SB 36, signed by Gov. Roy Cooper on Feb. 10, provides needed aid to individuals with substantial portions of their savings invested in small portfolios of rental housing. These small business persons provide between 30% and 40% of the affordable housing stock in North Carolina.

Rental and utility payment relief is also crucial to many renters facing unemployment or loss of income due to the pandemic. Many households facing utility cutoffs are not protected by the eviction moratoriums, and these cutoffs and unpaid bills cause substantial problems for renters as well as rural cooperatives and municipal electric companies. Rental assistance also plays a valuable public health role by keeping North Carolinians in their homes, thereby preventing further spread of Covid-19.

Recognizing that the amount of relief available under the recent federal authorization is not enough and that more needs to be done to protect vulnerable renters and landlords, our initial group rebranded itself as the Eviction Prevention Working Group and continued to share information and discuss policy options. While we acknowledge the immense managerial, logistical, and financial challenges behind getting assistance for the estimated 435,00 North Carolinians who are behind on rent, we believe the following principles should guide our state’s response:

Speed Matters. Funds allocated under the recently enacted federal and state legislation should be distributed as soon as possible. Pandemic related job losses and moratoriums on evictions have put substantial financial strain on owners, who are not receiving rent to maintain their property and pay their mortgages, and renters, who are facing substantial and growing rental obligations in arrears and the impending expiration of eviction moratoriums.

Simplicity Matters. While we understand the importance of assuring that support payments go to those most in need, requiring extensive documentation to obtain relief will complicate the administration of the program and delay the provision of critical aid to landlords and renters.

Consistency Matters. We are concerned that the federal enabling legislation’s allocation of rental support funds to a number of local governments as well as to the state of North Carolina will result in an inconsistent quality of relief to those in need and in differing outcomes based on the location and type of rental properties involved. Coordination is necessary to achieve comparable and consistent treatment for property owners and renters across North Carolina.

Transparency Matters. For policymakers to determine whether and how to continue rental support, periodic public reports of progress in the distribution of relief is crucial.

Market Acceptance Is Critical. To serve the maximum number of property owners and renters, program rules should tie payments to actual rental rates by location and number of bedrooms.

We believe the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency has the capacity, experience, and infrastructure necessary to achieve the objectives above. It can and coordinate with counties that received their own distribution of dollars to achieve a more consistent result across North Carolina. While Working Group members do not agree on every issue, we agree that policymakers should not reinvent the wheel but should adapt the existing infrastructure to distribute the recently allocated funds.

This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 12:00 AM.