The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday it would be allocating $521.1 million to helping renters who are in need, in an effort to prevent more evictions from happening.
Wally Adeyemo, Treasury's deputy secretary, said the department's Emergency Rental Assistance Program will work with the agency's other initiatives to try and keep more U.S. renters in their homes.
The money was allocated to 82 state and local grant receivers in areas that have demonstrated a high need for the money.
The U.S. Treasury is calling the money "unused funds" and said it hopes to make "the vast majority" of over $46 billion available for deployment to localities across the country.
Communities which have received assistance include Oakland, Ca., Gwinnett County, Ga., and Polk County, Iowa.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, new research examined last year found that around 2.7 million households were hit with an eviction filing each year.
The U.S. Census Bureau shared a report from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University which found that landlords file 3.6 million eviction claims in a typical year.
The Treasury said it is working to build more plans for an infrastructure for long-term eviction prevention.
Adeyemo said the goal is to "reallocate funds to programs that have demonstrated particular success in deploying rental assistance and will help put more funds into the hands of families facing urgent need.”
Click here for a full list of grantees receiving the reallocated funds.
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