Letter to Hon. Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary - Treasury Must Equip Public Schools to Help Distribute Funds to Families

Letter

Dear Secretary Yellen,

Thank you for your commitment to keeping families in their homes with the Emergency Rental
Assistance program (ERA). The updated FAQ guidance provided important clarifications on the
administration of ERA by using contractors, subrecipients, and intergovernmental cooperation
agreements. We write with deep concern for reaching all children impacted by housing insecurity
and recommend that schools be uplifted as central community hubs that, more than any other
public institution, are uniquely positioned to identify and assist students and families at risk of or
facing eviction, as well as those who are currently experiencing homelessness.

The single biggest predictor of an eviction is there being a child in the household. The Supreme
Court's decision to strike the federal eviction moratorium in the middle of a deadly public health
crisis jeopardized the safety and well-being of children and families across the nation as schools
reopened for the fall, with a disproportionate negative impact on Black and brown children. A
rise in evictions correlates with a rise in positive COVID-19 cases, which poses an increased risk
for households with children under age 12 who are not eligible for vaccinations. Housing
insecurity exposes our children to adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, which are linked to
at least five of the top ten leading causes of death. Many households across the country
accumulated rent debt prior to ERA being stood up, and due to implementation flaws, eviction
notices can easily go out faster than rental relief is paid out.

The Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) Improvement Act of 2021, H.R. 5269, was
developed to drastically expand access to financial assistance by allowing individuals and
families to apply for assistance at places that are central to their communities -- schools,
libraries, the post office, among others. We ask that Treasury implement these changes to the
ERA program and make these funds directly available for public school districts to distribute and
protect children from devastating disruption and trauma caused by evictions. It is critical that our
schools be prepared to support students and families in the face of an ongoing pandemic and the
rise in extreme weather events, both of which exacerbate the risk of homelessness. As such,
equipping schools to meet students' emerging needs must be prioritized with respect to
implementing ERA.

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, every public school district in the nation has a
designated liaison who facilitates the enrollment, attendance, and success of students
experiencing homelessness in the district. This funding can be used for tutoring, supplemental
instruction, and referral services, including medical, dental, mental, and other health services. As
established by the McKinney-Vento Act, schools already have systems in place to ensure that
students experiencing homelessness are identified, enrolled and remain enrolled at their school of
origin, and that they access the same free, appropriate public education -- including public
preschool -- provided to other children. Congress recognized the significant unmet needs of
children and youth experiencing homelessness in the pandemic, and the vital role of schools in
meeting those needs, with the addition of $800 million specifically for homeless children and
youth in the American Rescue Plan Act. School district McKinney-Vento liaisons are currently
on the front lines of the housing crisis; while many have established relationships with housing
and homeless assistance agencies, many also confront numerous barriers when attempting to
help families access emergency rental assistance, or to sustainably exit homelessness.

Any program trying to reach vulnerable families quickly and seamlessly has a nationwide,
established system already in place to do so: our public schools. Therefore, we urge the
following recommendations be included in updated ERA implementation guidance:

1. Explicitly authorize local educational agencies (LEAs) to distribute emergency rent
relief directly to eligible families (or to landlords on behalf of eligible families) and
incentivize ERA grantees to subcontract with public schools for this purpose.

Delays in accessing ERA can make the difference in a family remaining in their home or
not. Further, inadequate outreach means many families lack information about ERA,
which puts the onus on the family to try finding resources on their own on top of the
compounding stress of housing insecurity. Interagency collaboration with our public
schools that already know students and are connected to families is a common-sense
solution to quickly deliver resources, mitigate exposure to ACEs, and provide stability.

We urge the Treasury to specifically include LEAs as eligible subrecipients able
to administer ERA funds on behalf of ERA grantees to eligible families with
children enrolled in the LEA. FAQ 21 in the updated guidance currently allows
for subgrants, contracts, and intergovernmental agreements, but it does not
discuss or specify public schools.

* We further recommend that LEAs be made eligible to enter into a written
agreement with an ERA grantee to establish a payment fund for delivering
assistance using ERA funds while a household's application remains in process.
FAQ 42 allows non-profits to deliver assistance under these terms and we believe
LEAs should similarly be able to make expedited payments to landlords in order
to prevent evictions.

* In addition to encouraging ERA grantees to subgrant or contract with public
schools to distribute rental assistance, McKinney-Vento liaisons should be
directly engaged in this work. With these recommendations in place, we believe a
demonstrable increase in families assisted with ERA would result.

2. Clarify the use of ERA for temporary hotel and motel stays for eligible households
identified by public schools.

In many communities, there are no family shelters; where family shelters do exist, they
are often full or have reduced capacity due to COVID-19 precautions. Parents are often
fearful of seeking shelter, particularly during the pandemic. Issues with shelter capacity
are further exacerbated by the rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events
due to the climate crisis.

As a result, 84% of children and youth identified as experiencing homelessness by public
schools are forced to stay temporarily with others in crowded, unstable, and unsafe
conditions (particularly in the context of a pandemic in which social distancing is
necessary), or in motels that are paid for with limited and/or sporadic income.8 Schools
are increasingly confronted with families and youth who have been displaced from their
housing and have nowhere to go, even while longer-term housing solutions are
researched and put in place. In addition, many families identified under the education
definition of homelessness are not eligible or prioritized for motel stays under HUD's
Emergency Solutions Grant program. The result is thousands of families with no safe
alternative for shelter in the middle of a pandemic. As evictions increase, we expect this
situation to significantly worsen.

Current Treasury guidance allows the use of ERA funds to pay for temporary hotel
accommodations for temporarily displaced households (FAQ 26). However, because
public schools historically have not been well connected with ERA programs, there is not
a clear, streamlined way for schools to help households access ERA rental assistance for
this purpose. Therefore, Treasury's guidance should be revised to provide a streamlined
process for public schools to connect eligible families that they identify under the
education definition of homelessness to ERA funds quickly to pay for the cost of a hotel
or motel room.

3. Encourage the use of ERA housing stability services to fund navigator positions in
public schools and early childhood programs to help families access rental
assistance.

According to a 2020 report from SchoolHouse Connection and the University of
Michigan's Poverty Solutions, McKinney-Vento liaisons described significant unmet
needs of children and youth in their communities, including mental health and increased
stress levels for children and their families experiencing homelessness as they try to
navigate public assistance application processes, including the ERA, by themselves.10
They often lack devices and connections for online applications and required
documentation. They need the help of a trusted person who is knowledgeable about the
rental assistance program to advocate for them and walk them through the process of
applying for ERA assistance to ideally remain in their home, locating housing, moving
into the housing, and remaining stably housed.

Current Treasury guidance (FAQ 23) describes housing stability services that can be
funded with ERA funds, including housing navigators and case managers. Treasury
should encourage the use of ERA funds for these positions, particularly located in, or
working closely with, public schools and early childhood programs, such as Head Start,
Early Head Start, state preK, subsidized child care, Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood
Home Visiting (MIECHV) programs, and early childhood education programs receiving
funds from IDEA Part B Section 619 and IDEA Part C. Treasury guidance (FAQ 35)
addresses how ERA assistance can be used to support an eligible household moving to a
new home. Housing instability can result in students switching schools or school districts
in the middle of a school year, which exacerbates instability in a student's life. Updated
ERA guidance should further encourage grantees and subgrantees to work with
McKinney-Vento liaisons, school districts, and schools to identify students who have
recently moved or are potentially going to move schools as a result of housing instability
to help connect them with ERA funds.

4. Address the distribution of funds through schools in the determination of
reallocation.

Unobligated funds are required to be reallocated to high-performing jurisdictions that
have obligated at least 65 percent of their original allocation, which will make it possible
for them to continue serving tenants and landlords in need. Because eviction notices have
been delivered promptly while renters assistance has been delayed due, in part, to not
identifying public schools as key partners from the start, we strongly recommend that the
reallocation process account for partnering with school districts and McKinney-Vento
liaisons meaningfully so that children and their families are not punished at no fault of
their own.

Thank you for your work to improve the ERA program to keep children and families safely in
their homes. We look forward to partnering with you to uplift our public schools as a key
component to solving the challenges before us.

Sincerely,

Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D.
Member of Congress

Cori Bush
Member of Congress

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Member of Congress

Ilhan Omar
Member of Congress

Ayanna Pressley
Member of Congress

Rashida Tlaib
Member of Congress

André Carson
Member of Congress

Mark Pocan
Member of Congress

CC:
The Honorable Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education

The Honorable Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Dwight Evans
Member of Congress

Alma S. Adams, Ph.D.
Member of Congress

Danny K. Davis
Member of Congress

Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress

Grace Meng
Member of Congress

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

Jesús G "Chuy' Garcia
Member of Congress

Jimmy Panetta
Member of Congress

Kaiali"i Kahele
Member of Congress

Marie Newman
Member of Congress

Thomas R. Suozzi
Member of Congress

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