EARLIER THIS YEAR, Samantha Schilling and her fiancé fell behind by about $1,900 on rent for their home in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Schilling herself can’t work due to a serious back injury. Then, in March, her fiancé’s hours at a Dollar General store got cut back from a full-time schedule to two days a week.

So Schilling applied to receive federal rental assistance through her state. When they owed nearly $3,000 last year, the couple applied and received rental assistance to get caught up, so she assumed that she could do it again. If they had been able to get what they owed the second time around, their landlord would have let them stay. This time, though, the assistance did not come through. “There was none,” she said. Their landlord moved to evict them.

In May 2021, the Treasury Department announced that states would get another $21.6 billion in federal rental assistance. It was the second tranche of money made possible by the American Rescue Plan, intended to cover the back rent tenants owe after suffering financial hardship during the pandemic.

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Renters in Arkansas and Nebraska Face Eviction After Governors Refuse Federal Rental Assistance