Explanation
BACKGROUND: The Emergency Rental Assistance program is a federal Covid relief program that makes funding available to assist households that are unable to pay rent or utilities. Two separate programs have been established: 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. These funds are provided directly to states, U.S. territories, local governments, and (in the case of ERA1) Indian tribes. Grantees use the funds to provide assistance to eligible households through existing or newly created rental assistance programs
Previous legislation (Ordinance 0284-2021) authorized the acceptance and appropriation of $26,822,803.20 in funding from the U.S. Treasury to the City of Columbus related to the ERA1 program. Pursuant to initial program implementation, the U.S. Treasury solicited additional funding requests from governmental entities made available by reallocations within the ERA1 program. These reallocations were comprised of 1) voluntary reallocations, whereby initial awardees provided uncommitted funds back to U.S. Treasury; and 2) involuntary reallocations, whereby funding was pulled from initial awardees for not meeting mandated obligation thresholds established by the U.S. Treasury.
Under the ERA1 reallocation process, the City of Columbus submitted a request to the U.S. Treasury for the award of additional ERA1 funding. The U.S. Treasury approved the City’s request and has awarded additional ERA1 funding in the amount of $2,513,379.24. This ordinance therefore seeks authorization to accept and appropriate these funds within the Emergency Rental Assistance Fund.
The Department of Finance and Management will be responsible for monitoring the distribution and appropriate expenditure of ERA funds based on guidance provided by the United States Department of ...
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