Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn, she prayed. In ensuing nights, she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance \u2014 finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those walls were possible through a federal program that pays rent for some 60,000 families and individuals fleeing homelessness or domestic violence. Espinal was fleeing both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the program, Emergency Housing Vouchers, is running out of money \u2014 and quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding is expected to be used up by the end of next year, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and obtained by The Associated Press. That would leave tens of thousands across the country scrambling to pay their rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be among the largest one-time losses of rental assistance in the U.S., analysts say, and the ensuing evictions could churn these people \u2014 after several years of rebuilding their lives \u2014 back onto the street or back into abusive relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo have it stop would completely upend all the progress that they\u2019ve made,\u201d said Sonya Acosta, policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which researches housing assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd then you multiply that by 59,000 households,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program, launched in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden as part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act, was allocated $5 billion to help pull people out of homelessness, domestic violence and human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People from San Francisco to Dallas to Tallahassee, Florida, were enrolled \u2014 among them children, seniors and veterans \u2014 with the expectation that funding would last until the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with the ballooning cost of rent, that $5 billion will end far faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, HUD sent letters to groups dispersing the money, advising them to \u201cmanage your EHV program with the expectation that no additional funding from HUD will be forthcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program\u2019s future rests with Congress, which could decide to add money as it crafts the federal budget. But it\u2019s a relatively expensive prospect at a time when Republicans, who control Congress, are dead set on cutting federal spending to afford tax cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who championed the program four years ago, is pushing for another $8 billion infusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the organizations lobbying Republican and Democratic lawmakers to re-up the funding told the AP they aren\u2019t optimistic. Four GOP lawmakers who oversee the budget negotiations did not respond to AP requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been told it\u2019s very much going to be an uphill fight,\u201d said Kim Johnson, the public policy manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Espinal and her two daughters, aged 4 and 19, are living on one of those vouchers in a three-bedroom apartment with an over $3,000 monthly rent \u2014 an amount extremely difficult to cover without the voucher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four years ago, Espinal fought her way out of a marriage where her husband controlled her decisions, from seeing her family and friends to leaving the apartment to go shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she spoke up, her husband said she was wrong, or in the wrong or crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isolated and in the haze of postpartum depression, she didn\u2019t know what to believe. \u201cEvery day, little by little, I started to feel not like myself,\u201d she said. \u201cIt felt like my mind wasn\u2019t mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When notices arrived in March 2021 seeking about $12,000 in back rent, it was a shock. Espinal had quit her job at her husband\u2019s urging and he had promised to cover family expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police reports documenting her husband\u2019s bursts of anger were enough for a judge to give her custody of their daughter in 2022, Espinal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But her future was precarious: She was alone, owed thousands of dollars in back rent and had no income to pay it or support her newborn and teenage daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Financial aid to prevent evictions during the pandemic kept Espinal afloat, paying her back rent and keeping the family out of shelters. But it had an expiration date.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRecipients face uncertainty after years of stability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n