Rep. Wild Joins Press Conference to Tout Rental Assistance Funds in American Rescue Plan

Representative Susan Wild (PA-07) led a press conference with community leaders yesterday to discuss the $24 million in rental assistance funding coming to Lehigh County as part of the American Rescue Plan. Earlier this month, Rep. Wild spearheaded a letter with her colleagues in the Pennsylvania delegation to push the state to improve the implementation of emergency rental assistance funding. See more below: 

Morning Call: $24 million in emergency COVID relief available for hamstrung Lehigh County renters

By Tom Shortell

March 24, 2021

Key Points:

• More than 350 households have applied for an updated version of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, said Tom Miller, the Catholic Charities official overseeing the program in Lehigh County. Despite the struggles last year, he’s confident the funds will reach the families and landlords that need it most. He’s already seen the difference.
• Elected leaders from Lehigh County gathered Wednesday to promote the program, which will provide up to $24 million to thousands of county residents who have fallen behind on their leases.
• About $848 million of that is going toward rent assistance in Pennsylvania. U.S. Rep. Susan Wild was one of the act’s supporters who enabled it to pass in the House by just nine votes.
• Wild said the program was important to her because of the protection it would offer children. She said it’s bad enough that lesson plans have been disrupted, but school districts provide other critical services to families in need. As the pandemic has dragged on, reports have popped up across the country of schools losing touch with families and students who couldn’t afford to stay in their homes.
• “It benefits our children who really need as much continuity as possible as we’ve gone through this crisis,” she said.
• Wild and others were optimistic the new version of the program will avoid many of the pitfalls that plagued Pennsylvania’s last Emergency Rental Assistance program. The renewed program instead relies on a decentralized system where county government oversees the assistance.

(See More Here)