Right now, the Senate is preparing its Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Supplemental Budget, which will provide additional funds for THIS fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2022.
This is our last chance for rental assistance to be funded at the level necessary to prevent more evictions after rental assistance runs out in mid-April.
Please call or email your Senator (find contact info here)to urge their support for:
- $200 million to continue the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) homelessness prevention programs through the end of FY22
- Restore program benefits to December 2021 levels (back to the $10,000 cap instead of the current cap of $7,000)
- Extend Chapter 257 protections to June 30, 2023, to move protections upstream, requiring landlords participate in rental assistance applications in good faith before being allowed to file an eviction case
- Temporarily restrict no-fault evictions
- $50 million to ensure the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) is successful by
covering mortgage, tax, insurance, condo, and other fees not covered by HAF but put
homeowners at risk of foreclosure
(Feel free to copy and paste the list above or read it aloud to the legislative aide – either works!)
Ideally, this language will get in the initial budget proposed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, but more likely an Amendment will be filed after the budget is released, prior to Senate debate and a final vote. All of this will likely move very quickly. NOW is the time to call or email your Senator to lay the groundwork. When an Amendment exists, we’ll act again to ask our Senators to sign on to it.
See this factsheet for additional information on what we need and why. The House passed its Supplemental Budget earlier this week, providing $100 million in additional assistance, a step in the right direction but half of what we need.
Let’s go talk to our Senators now!
