Emergency rental relief ticked up slightly in September, but issues getting money out the door persist

“There’s no question that the 2 million payments [so far], and the path to 3.5 million payments in 2021, is making a meaningful difference in preventing the feared surge in evictions, but it is still not good enough,” said Gene Sperling, who is leading the rollout of the American Rescue Plan at the White House. “Every preventable eviction is a preventable heartbreak and even with the stronger performance, we know if we don’t do better nationwide, hundreds of thousands of families will still unnecessarily face that painful eviction, or risk of eviction.”