FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 22, 2021

CONTACT: Lisa Ryan, Gina Trish, Tammori Petty

PHONE: 609-292-6055

 

 

DCA Disburses $365 Million in Federal Emergency Rental Assistance

Department Expends Entire First Tranche of Emergency Rental Assistance Nearly One Year Ahead of the Federal Deadline 

 

TRENTON, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) today announced that it has disbursed $365 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds throughout the state. The rental relief has been distributed to more than 40,000 households by DCA’s Division of Housing and Community Resources through the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (CVERAP).

 

Notably, DCA had expended by October 15th the entire first tranche of $353 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance it had received, beating the federal deadline to spend the funds by nearly one year. This milestone follows last month’s U.S. Treasury report that showed New Jersey as first in the nation among state-administered ERA programs in terms of percentage of Emergency Rental Assistance funds spent.

 

“These disbursement numbers demonstrate how incredibly committed DCA is to quickly and effectively getting rental assistance out to New Jersey families who have been financially impacted by the pandemic and are unable to pay their rent,” said Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as DCA Commissioner. “We implore people in need who have not yet applied to act now and apply for rental assistance before it is too late. The assistance can help cover rent arrears, current rent, and future rent, but people must not wait until the last minute to apply.”

 

To help keep people in their homes, federal Emergency Rental Assistance funding assists households that are finding it difficult or impossible to pay their rent. The federal government established two separate programs: ERA1 provides up to $25 billion under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which was enacted on December 27, 2020, and ERA2 provides up to $21.55 billion under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was enacted on March 11, 2021. The Emergency Rental Assistance funds were provided directly to states and local governmental entities to distribute in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

DCA administers the Emergency Rental Assistance funds that were allocated to the State of New Jersey. The Department received $353 million in ERA1 funds, all of which have been expended, and $272 million in ERA2 funds, which are currently being distributed. In addition to the Emergency Rental Assistance allocations DCA received, the federal government provided additional funds to local governments in New Jersey that are operating their own rental assistance programs.

 

DCA urges people who have had difficulty paying their rent to apply to both the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program and the Eviction Prevention Program, which launched on September 1, 2021 and will provide up to $500 million in rental assistance to tenants who have faced hardship due to the pandemic.

 

People can visit https://njdca.onlinepha.com/ to get started. Applications can be submitted online with the use of a personal computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. The application is available in ten languages.

 

People with questions or who have difficulty accessing the internet should contact DCA’s call center at 609-490-4550 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. The call center is staffed with English and Spanish speakers and has translation services for other languages. Pre-applications may be submitted over the phone by those without internet access.

 

Landlords may apply for assistance on behalf of a tenant. The landlord must:

 

·     Obtain the signature of the tenant on the application, which may be documented electronically; and

·     Must provide documentation of the application to the tenant to notify the tenant that the application has been submitted.

 

As part of the programs, DCA is encouraging landlords to agree to a reasonable payment plan for any rent arrears and rent not covered by the rental assistance and commit to not filing for eviction for non-payment of rent during the term of the assistance.

 

In addition to the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program and Eviction Prevention Program, the State introduced critical eviction protections for renter households that have experienced economic hardships during the pandemic. In order to be protected from eviction due to nonpayment of rent during the pandemic, residents must first self-certify for these protections. To find out more about current eviction protections available and how to self-certify for these protections, people can visit https://covid19.nj.gov/renter

 

The funding milestone announced today is in addition to the $91.75 million that DCA distributed to 15,000 households in the first phase of the CVERAP program last year. 

 

DCA offers a wide range of programs and services, including energy assistance, housing vouchers, affordable housing production, fire and building safety, community planning and development, local government management and finance, and disaster recovery and mitigation.

 

For more information about DCA, visit https://nj.gov/dca/ or follow the Department on social media:

 

 

View the DCA Photo Gallery on Flickr

 

 
 

 

New Jersey Department of Community Affairs | 101 South Broad St., PO Box 800, Trenton, NJ 08625

Unsubscribe jyothi.pamidimukkala@dca.nj.gov

Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice

Sent by dcanews@dca.nj.gov