The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs will receive an additional $31.45 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds for New Jersey renters in financial hardship and facing urgent need.

Due to the demonstrated need for emergency rental assistance in New Jersey and DCA’s success in distributing the rental assistance, the additional funds will be reallocated to DCA by U.S. Treasury from other states and localities in the nation that didn’t use them, the department announced this morning.

With the $31.45 million in additional funds, DCA will be able to assist another 2,500 to 3,000 households that are currently on the waiting list for the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (CVERAP).

This is the seventh ERA funding reallocation awarded to DCA since January 2022.

The Department received $42.7 million in January 2022, $44.64 million in March 2022, $41.57 million in September 2022, $20.59 million in October 2022, and $30.47 million in December 2022.

DCA was also awarded $33.65 million this January for a total to date of $245.07 million in additional ERA funds.

DCA received an original allocation of $626 million in ERA funds from the federal government. The Department has completely disbursed the original allocation, as well as the ERA reallocations received in January, March, September, and October of 2022.

With ERA funding, DCA has been able to help more than 75,750 households across New Jersey through the CVERAP2 program, which began in January 2021 and provides rental assistance to households for past due and future rents. More than 15,000 households benefitted from the first phase of the CVERAP program that was launched in July 2020 in response to the pandemic.