In a bill the General Assembly is debating today in the House (2021 COVID-19 Response & Relief Bill (HB 196/SB 172)), provisions were introduced that propose to change how the NC Office of Recovery & Resiliency (NCORR) administers the state’s allocation of emergency rental assistance funds via the HOPE Program.
With hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians already many months behind in rent and at-risk of eviction, speed in the delivery of rental assistance is the most important factor. The changes the GA is attempting to impose only serve to slow the process down. The previous tranche of funding for the HOPE Program required elements that contributed to slowing down the disbursement of assistance payments. The problems were experienced across the country and the U.S. Congress responded by removing those barriers in the latest round of assistance enacted in December 2020. The Treasury Department concurred with those measures in their most recent FAQ document. Now the General Assembly is proposing changes that essentially add those barriers back into the process. The existing HOPE Program should not be further encumbered by the provisions in (HB 196/SB 172).
Join Our Advocates Circle
We are gearing up to begin working with NCHC’s new Advocates Circle! If you have not already, please contact our State Organizing Director, Adrienne Spinner, to designate the key advocate contact from your organization. As we build our advocacy and organizing work, the NCHC team is looking for partners in our existing network of housing professionals, to grow as affordable housing advocates and engage their organization in coalition-building across the state. We will host an initial meeting on 3/10, at 11am, to talk about rental assistance and the state/federal COVID relief bills.
