Kansas, Missouri holding hundreds of millions in unspent money that could help renters
Kansas and Missouri have distributed only a fraction of the hundreds of millions both states have received from the federal government to compensate landlords for unpaid rent and prevent evictions.
President Joe Biden’s administration issued a new moratorium on evictions this week in communities with substantial and high transmission of COVID-19, after backlash from progressives when the previous ban expired.
Biden’s new order will cover tenants in these communities through Oct. 3, but it may not even last that long. Landlord groups have already filed lawsuits against it. Biden openly cast doubt on the order’s constitutionality the same day it was issued.
In the face of a ticking clock, the administration is calling for states and cities to speed up distribution of billions in Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) money to prevent future evictions and keep landlords financially solvent after months of unpaid rent.
“We are trying to advocate for states, localities to get this money out. There’s no reason it’s not going out to landlords, to renters; no reason that people who are eligible are not benefiting,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week.
The money was sent to states by February, but governors of both parties have been slow in getting the funds to landlords.
Despite being the ultimate beneficiaries under the aid program, landlords are frustrated by the process. Both property owners and renters have faced bureaucratic hurdles in accessing the money.
Stacey Johnson-Cosby, president of the KC Regional Housing Alliance, called the application process a nightmare and said state and local governments “still don’t have a well-oiled machine, getting it out quickly and efficiently.”
Johnson-Cosby warned that without rental assistance tenants currently protected by the moratorium will be in debt once it expires. Property owners, on the other hand, may lose properties to foreclosures or sell properties and walk away.
“They’re frustrated, they’re tired, they’re at the end of the rope,” she said.
Kansas has paid out about $25 million of the $169 million in first-round ERA funds the state received from the federal government, according to the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, which is administering the program. About 4,600 households have received assistance out of about 9,555 applications submitted.
Ryan Vincent, director of the KHRC, said the state has also received an additional roughly $150 million as part of a second round of ERA funding, bringing the total aid available to more than $300 million. Kansas has until 2025 to distribute it.
“If you look at it as a percentage, yes, $25 million of $300 million we have available is not a big percentage. But what we’re pointing out is that we’ve funded more than half of the applications that we’ve received to date,” Vincent said. “Part of the key is making sure that tenants and landlords and community partners are aware of this resource.”
Kansas did not have a pre-existing infrastructure for distributing the money and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration launched the new program in March. It has seen increased interest over the past two weeks as national attention has focused on the future of the eviction moratorium, Vincent said.
“No one knows what the exact need is and I don’t think Congress knew what the exact need was when they set aside the amount of money that they did,” Vincent said in an interview. “What we know is that there is a huge need, that there are tenants and landlords that are hurting from the year and a half of eviction moratorium that’s been going on.”
Missouri received about $324 million in the first round of aid, but has so far only awarded a little more than $34 million in response to 6,812 applications, according to the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which is administering the program.
Another 1,800 applications have been approved and are being processed, said Brian Vollenweider, a MHDC spokesman.
About 60% of the funds awarded, or $20.1 million, have gone toward helping tenants who are late on rent. Most of the rest has been for “rent forward” aid to help tenants make upcoming payments. Just 2% of aid has gone toward utility assistance.
“As far as current trends, over the last 7 to 10 days, there has been a slight uptick in applications submitted,” Vollenweider wrote in an email.
Like Kansas, the uptick coincided with expiration of the original moratorium.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush and other progressive lawmakers slept on the steps of the Capitol in protest in a successful effort to pressure Biden’s administration to move forward with a new order.
Bush and other lawmakers emphasized that the purpose of the new order was to give states more time to distribute funds.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who chairs the subcommittee on housing, said in an email Missouri’s distribution of the rental assistance money has been “disappointingly slow,” and said he would work with Republican Gov. Mike Parson to address the issue.
“I was relieved to see President Biden take decisive action by extending the eviction moratorium, but struggling tenants will continue to fall through the cracks if rental assistance is not distributed to Missouri families in a timely manner,” Cleaver said.
“That’s why Members of Congress from all corners of the state, including myself, must work with Governor Parson to get these emergency funds into the pockets of tenants before eviction even enters the conversation,” Cleaver said. “No Missourian should lose the roof over their head when millions of dollars in rental assistance are still waiting to be used.”
MHDC data shows the amount of aid paid out rose steadily during June and early July, reaching a peak the week of July 14, when $3.9 million was distributed, before falling in the last half of the month. But in the week of Aug. 4, payments rose again, to $3.4 million.
Vollenweider said the time between application and approval varies, depending on the need to fix mistakes or provide more information.
“Approval of a submitted application can occur in just a few days and funded in as little as two weeks,” he wrote.
In addition to the state, Kansas City received $14.8 million in rental assistance funds and has distributed nearly $7.9 million to 1,835 households, the city’s Housing and Community Development Department spokesman John Baccala said in an email.
Nearly 7,000 Kansas City residents have applied for rental assistance. The remaining funds are “committed to applicants currently in the system,” Baccala wrote. New applicants need to apply through the state’s portal, he said.
Tara Raghuveer, director of KC Tenants, a group which has protested evictions, said activists “could anticipate even in March 2020 what a bureaucratic nightmare rental assistance would be.” She called the program a bailout to the rental industry and contended that the cancellation of rent would have been a better approach.
Jackson County has distributed $5.5 million of the $11.6 million it received from the federal government. As of last July 30, 1,228 Jackson County households had received an average household assistance of $3,942.
An average of 30 applications are received each day and 1,095 are being processed. About 22 applications are closed and paid every day. Applications are processed by more than 20 full and part-time case managers.
In a news release on July 16, the county said it had prevented more than 1,000 evictions.
“While we would love to write checks to cover requested assistance as soon as we receive an application, the law is very clear on documentary demonstration of need and eligibility, so that definitely slows down the process,” Lynn Rose, senior vice president with Community Services League, said in an email.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 4:15 PM.
