15K Iowa homes aided by rental assistance program

DES MOINES — A program created during the pandemic to help renters avoid eviction largely achieved that stated goal in Iowa, one advocacy organization said.

However, as that program winds down, data show that evictions are rising again, the advocate said.

The federal Emergency Rental Assistance program was created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help renters, especially those who lost income during the early days of the pandemic when many businesses opted or were forced to close.

The state of Iowa received $130 million in the first round of federal funding for the rental assistance program, according to federal data. All of the funding has been distributed, said a spokeswoman for the Iowa Finance Authority, the state housing agency that manages the federal program.

The city of Des Moines and Polk County, which operated their own programs, received an additional combined $80 million, according to the federal data.

In total, more than 15,500 Iowa renter households have been helped by the program, the state spokeswoman said.

“Your question is, ‘Were people getting paid the money?’ and I think for the most part our experience is they were,” said Alex Kornya, the litigation director for Iowa Legal Aid, a nonprofit that offers legal assistance to low-income Iowans. “There were some issues where it was a taking a while … but ultimately I think this was a program that helped a lot of people stay in their house.”

Iowa will receive another $149 million in a second round of funding for the rental assistance program, and Des Moines ($5.1 million), Polk County ($5.4 million) and Linn County ($6.5 million) will receive separate funding for their local programs.

The state and local governments have until September of 2025 to distribute those federal funds.

Perhaps that second round of funding will help stave off the rise in evictions that Kornya fears is coming.

Kornya said Iowa Legal Aid tracks evictions data, and that the numbers of increased each of the past two weeks. The most recent week saw the highest number of eviction filings this year.

“We’ve been bracing for another spike,” Kornya said. “We’re starting to see some (increasing) numbers. We don’t know if it is going to materialize or not.”

Kornya said the fact that evictions did not spike immediately after a federal ban on evictions was lifted in June of 2021 shows that the rental assistance funding worked, Kornya said.

While there is no federal database that tracks evictions, Princeton University’s Eviction Lab tracks evictions in six states and 31 cities. And evictions in multiple states, including Iowa neighbors Minnesota and Missouri, did not experience a significant increase in evictions until earlier this year, according to the Eviction Lab’s data.

“I think the reason why we have lower the numbers the last two years can be attributed almost entirely to that rental assistance,” Kornya said.

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