Granite Staters could lose shelter this winter as emergency rental assistance funds run out

For over a year, New Hampshire’s Community Action Partnership provided $246 million in the form of rental assistance statewide.

That money has since dried up, and the NH Emergency Rental Assistance Program is no longer taking applicants. Those who made it in might have a few months left of rental assistance, but others could lose access to rent money right in the middle of winter. An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 households across the state were using the service as of the end of November, according to New Hampshire Housing Executive Director Rob Dapice. An additional 700 to 800 people were receiving assistance to stay in hotels.

The state’s executive committee voted Nov. 29 to approve an additional $20 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to extend the stay for those in hotels. The pool for those receiving rental assistance has not been similarly boosted. A message on the New Hampshire Housing website reads: 

“Given the announcement by the U.S. Treasury that New Hampshire will not receive any additional resources to continue its Emergency Rental Assistance program beyond December 29, 2022, New Hampshire Housing is announcing a pause to incoming applications under the NH Emergency Rental Assistance Program (NHERAP). Effective Friday, October 21, 2022, new applications will not be accepted pending a review of the existing pipeline of applications, the level of federal funding available, and the status of existing State requests to U.S. Treasury for additional funding.”

This doesn’t mean that everyone on the program will run out of funding at the exact same time, Dapice said. 

“Some of the press coverage says the program ends Dec. 31,” Dapice said. “It’s not like that. People can apply for up to three months of prospective rental assistance at a time. We stopped accepting applications on Oct. 21, so some households will be getting assistance for November, December and January, but they won’t have the opportunity to reapply.”

Dapice explained that because some households applied earlier, their three months may consist of September, October and November. There is also a backlog of applications at CAP offices around the state, so more households could be awarded assistance over the next few months.

Due to the fluidity of the situation, exact figures for the number of households currently dependent on the program in Belknap County were not available either at the local CAP office or from their headquarters in Concord. 

What was clear was that Belknap County provided over $11.5 million in aid of the $246 million distributed statewide. Since the program began in March 2021, “Approximately 1,137 Belknap County households have received NHERAP assistance,” according to an email from Grace Lessner, director of communications and marketing for New Hampshire Housing.

The program has been vital to thousands across the Granite State, but both landlords and beneficiaries of the funding claim much of that funding was abused, and the state could see an influx of homelessness this winter due to its absence.

“I honestly think a lot of people are going to be behind in rent again,” said Brittany Fry, a former recipient of the rental assistance program. “A lot of folks aren't working. Businesses are looking for people and can't hire them. I don’t know where they're getting their money because unemployment isn't handing out anymore.”

Fry and her husband found themselves out of work due to the pandemic. Fry also has a 5-year-old son. When the rental assistance program became available, Fry applied multiple times, calling the funding a “godsend.”

“In order to qualify you have to have been eligible for unemployment, make under a certain amount, and go through verifications,” Fry explained. “You find an apartment, they pay first month, security and three months rent concurring.”

Those who wanted another three months had to reapply, making the number of applications likely larger than the number of households helped by the program. According to data shared by Lessner, the program has approved more than 27,000 applications so far. Fry alone successfully applied six times, covering 18 months of rent, the maximum amount allocated by the program.

Fry and her husband are currently living in a hotel and paying the expense themselves after regaining employment as they build their own home. 

“People are not working because of this program,” Fry said. “It's a two-way street. For the people who need it, it's great, but people can definitely abuse it.”

One Lakes Region landlord said that while some may have abused the program due to the low rate of application denial, he personally had tenants with a legitimate need for assistance.

New Hampshire Housing, in a written statement, says, “there are measures in place to flag and identify potential fraud,” and that the office takes this oversight very seriously. “The Community Action Partnership agencies flag applications that are potentially fraudulent and deny those that do not meet eligibility.”

The statement also mentioned the payments were disbursed via check, thus banks were able to assist in identifying fraud.

The Lakes Region landlord recalled an incident last spring when CAP successfully flagged an application that fraudulently used his address. 

When the program was funded, Fry said it could take months for the rent to actually come through, placing an extra burden on landlords who participated.

“Thankfully, our landlord was very reasonable,” Fry said. “You're supposed to get [assistance] every three months but it takes three months to get it.” Fry said she moved into one of her apartments in December and the assistance didn’t come through until March. 

Fry attributed the delay to overworked and understaffed Community Action Partnership personnel. 

“They only had two workers doing 800 cases at a time in Belknap County,” she said.

While things are looking up for Fry, her sister Nicole is part of the 700 or more households residing in hotels. Nicole did not return a call for comment but Fry explained that she was staying at a hotel in Concord, and that her rental rate was nearly $4,000 per month. Hotels in Concord and Tilton confirmed they had a significant number of guests living in their rooms who were receiving emergency assistance. An employee at the Concord Best Western stated that most of the occupants on the first and second floors were recipients. 

For Dapice, this year has been harder than others. 

“The housing market has gotten a lot tighter, expensive and challenging,” Dapice said. “The people most affected by that are low-income, vulnerable people who have trouble finding a place to live. So it's worse. I want to make it clear the reason we're in this challenging situation with respect to homelessness is because the housing market is so intensely competitive and it’s related.”

As of this writing, the state is nearly 20,000 housing units short of demand, causing overpriced rentals across the state and the Lakes Region.

“People might not see the relationship between someone who can't afford an apartment and lives in their car and starter homes costing $590K, but they're very much related,” Dapice said. Speaking to the recently approved funding for hotel dwellers, “this $20 million is going to help. It's going to make a big difference and prevent more people from sleeping on the street, cars or other unstable situations. But there's no question we're in a tough spot with respect to housing.”

Despite the dire situation, the Lakes Region landlord believes that more funding will come due to the sheer demand, and called the issue a “political football.”