The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) will receive an additional $51 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance funds for New Jersey renter households impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The additional funds will be reallocated to the DCA by the U.S. Treasury from other states and localities in the nation that didn’t use them.

With the $51.06 million in additional funds, DCA is expecting to assist another 4,100 to 4,600 households that are currently on the waiting list for the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (CVERAP).

These are the fourth and fifth ERA funding reallocations awarded to DCA in less than a year.

The Department received $42.7 million in January, $44.64 million in March, and $41.57 million in September. The DCA was just recently awarded $30.47 million on October 18th and $20.59 million on October 28th for a total of $179.97 million in additional ERA funds.

The DCA received an original allocation of $625 million in ERA funds from the federal government and completely disbursed the original allocation in March of this year.

More than 68,000 households across New Jersey were helped through the CVERAP program, which began in July 2020 and provides up to 12 months of rental assistance to households.

While applications for the CVERAP and EPP programs are closed, the State still has critical eviction prevention tools in place for renters who experienced economic hardships during the pandemic.

Renter households with income below 120% of their county’s Area Median Income are permanently protected from eviction for nonpayment of rent from March 1, 2020, to August 31, 2021, by completing a self-certification form and also applying in some way for rental assistance through local and/or county government.

Depending on the household’s income level and specific circumstances, they may also be eligible for protection from eviction for nonpayment of rent through December 31, 2021. To find out more about current eviction prevention tools available and how to self-certify for protections, people can visit https://covid19.nj.gov/renter.