PD Editorial: California must use federal rent relief — or lose it

California has less than two weeks to help tenants behind on their rent due to the pandemic. Sept 30, which is a week from Thursday, marks the confluence of two deadlines. One could put renters on the street. The other could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

The state’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of the month, and another isn’t forthcoming. Lawmakers recognized that at some point landlords need to get paid.

Congress, meanwhile, declined to extend a federal moratorium, despite Democrats controlling both the House and Senate. And the Supreme Court shot down President Joe Biden’s attempt to impose one through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When lawmakers extended the state moratorium in June, they noted that rent assistance is available to qualified tenants, but the state needed more time to get the money where it needed to go. Everyone got a few more months.

The federal government gave the state $1.8 billion for rent relief. The state Department of Housing and Community Development received the unenviable task of getting that money to landlords whose tenants were behind. The feds set a Sept. 30 deadline. After that, states might have to return any unused portion to Washington.

The state still has $300 million. At first, bureaucracy and interjurisdictional inconsistencies slowed down disbursement. So, too, did the initial plan to give landlords only 80 cents on the dollar in unpaid rent. Many other states had similar problems with their rent-relief programs.

Things have improved here in recent months. Landlords now can get all their back rent, and the application process has been streamlined. California has allocated about $1.4 billion (81%) of the funds so far, State Auditor Elaine Howle documented in a report released on Thursday. If that money remains unspent on Oct. 1, the federal government could claw it back.

There’s a semantic dispute over how the federal government will interpret the word “obligated” as in “obligated the funds,” but it’s ultimately a distraction. What matters to Californians is that the money could disappear instead of helping renters and landlords affected by pandemic policies.

Housing and Community Development officials asked the auditor to suppress the report until after the deadline had passed. Fortunately, the auditor declined. Californians deserve to know about a looming state failure before it hits, not just after it’s too late.

Many California renters remain on the eviction precipice. As of Sept. 8, the Department of Housing and Community Development had $993 million worth of unprocessed rental assistance applications. Demand exceeds available aid, so there’s no excuse not to use it.

The good news is that California has qualified for additional funding even if there’s unused money from this round. But that’s not a reason to risk millions that could help now.

In the remaining days before the end of the month, Housing and Community Development, its local partners and nonprofits must redouble their efforts to obligate the money in a way that will leave no question with Washington that California used it properly. No one wants an October eviction that could have been prevented if only the state had done a better job.

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