Rescue Plan has Billions Available for Housing, Advocates Urge Officials to Take It

When President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law in March, it came with significant funding to stanch the housing emergencies created by the pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) has $21.5 billion for emergency rental assistance, $10 billion for mortgage relief, $5 billion for housing choice vouchers, $5 billion for homelessness services and shelter acquisition, $750 million for housing assistance for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians, and $100 million for rural housing assistance.

But it turns out that is only a fraction of the funding in ARPA that could be used for affordable housing.

The act contains more than $350 billion for states and local municipalities—a fairly open-ended pot of money that can be used to fund a huge swath of needs, such as development, social safety net, education, public health, and more. In mid-May, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published guidance for how states and cities can spend the billions coming their way, and it makes clear that affordable housing development, housing vouchers, housing counseling, and other programs are approved uses when spent in Census tracts with high concentrations of low-income residents or on people disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Preservation Working Group, a Pittsburgh coalition of housing advocates, developers, public health workers, and others, is lobbying Pennsylvania state officials to use ARPA funds for affordable housing and to bolster the participation of developers of color in the affordable housing industry. The coalition faces something of an uphill battle, with a ...