January 7, 2021

The U.S. Treasury has released new details about the $25 billion emergency rental assistance program included in the year-end COVID-19 relief and omnibus spending package. California is anticipated to receive approximately $2.6 billion from this program. Counties and cities with populations exceeding 200,000 are eligible to receive a direct allocation from the federal government.

Separately, Governor Newsom announced that he is requesting early action by the Legislature to deploy all of the rental assistance funding, “targeting low-income California households, while helping stabilize small property owners who are also struggling.” CSAC expects to see additional details on the Governor’s plan for the approximately $1.4 billion in rental assistance funding allocated directly to the state in his FY 2021-22 budget proposal.

Treasury also unveiled a new rental assistance webpage. A list of local governments eligible for direct allocations is available here, while NACo’s estimates of individual county allocations are available here. Grantee award terms, which must be signed by the Chief Executive Officer if the recipient is a local government, are available here.

Counties eligible for direct funding must take action by January 12, 2021. This link will take eligible recipients to the submission process for receiving funds.