# Understanding the Eviction Crisis Act of 2021

The Eviction Crisis Act of 2021 was designed to help renters who fell behind on their rent payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill provides emergency rental assistance to people who couldn't pay their landlords because of pandemic-related job losses or income reductions. Essentially, it puts money directly into a program that helps cover back rent that tenants owe, preventing them from being evicted from their homes.

The bill also includes protections that prevent landlords from evicting tenants while they're waiting for rental assistance to be processed. This gives renters a safety net during the application period—they can't be thrown out on the street just because they're in the process of getting help. The assistance covers not just unpaid rent, but also utilities and other housing-related costs that piled up during the crisis.

For landlords, the bill provides a way to recover lost income from unpaid rent through the government assistance program rather than through eviction proceedings. This means property owners get paid, but tenants get to stay in their homes. The program is administered through state and local governments, which receive federal funding to distribute to eligible renters based on their income level and how much rent they owe.

In practical terms, if you were a renter who lost income during the pandemic and couldn't pay rent, this bill created a way for you to apply for help through your state or local housing authority. The goal was to prevent a massive wave of evictions while the economy was recovering and people were getting back on their feet.

Eviction Crisis Act of 2021

Bennet, Michael F.

Eviction Crisis Act of 2021 This bill creates several eviction-related grant programs and shields certain eviction records from consumer reports. Specifically, the bill requires the Bureau of Justice Assistance to award matching grants to state and local governments to support landlord-tenant focused community courts that allow social service representatives to assist tenants in the court process. The bill also permits the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to award grants to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to provide financial assistance and housing stabilization services to extremely low-income households. HUD is also required under the bill to award grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations to collect data from landlords on illegal self-help evictions and to establish and maintain an eviction database. The bill also requires a consumer report obtained in association with a rental application to be provided to the consumer applicant and requires that eviction information be excluded from a consumer report in cases decided in favor of the tenant. Further, the bill requires the Government Accountability Office to track historical eviction data and to report on savings and revenue generated by the grants awarded under the bill.