After previously announcing the end of the local Emergency Rental Assistance program, the City of Memphis and Shelby County now seem to be reversing their decision, with one official saying the program will be relaunched next year.

In August, Ashley Cash, the city’s director for the division of housing and community development, said the local version of the federally funded, pandemic relief program was accepting its final round of applications because it was running out of money. But in late October, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism revealed that Cash and other local officials had quietly decided not to apply for millions of dollars of additional ERA funds released this fall.

In response to MLK50’s reporting, Memphis City Council member Chase Carlisle asked Cash for a presentation on the program — which has covered back rent and overdue utility bills for more than 19,000 low-income Shelby County households since March 2021 — and whether her team was leaving federal funds on the table. During Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s housing committee, she provided a multi-part defense of her and her colleagues’ choices.

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