The new federal relief bill appropriates $25 billion for emergency rental assistance. It will be distributed to states and local governments using the same methodology as the Coronavirus Relief Fund (except local governments will get direct federal allocations if their populations exceed 200,000 instead of 500,000). It’s not clear how much Washington will receive, but all states will get at least $200 million. The funds must be used to “provide financial assistance and housing stability services to eligible households.” That includes rent and utility costs.

States are supposed to make these payments directly to lessors and utility providers on behalf of the households. Eligible households are defined as those that include someone who has qualified for unemployment insurance or “experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced other financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the novel coronavirus disease,” someone at risk of homelessness, and that have household income of not more than 80% of the area median income.

The new federal relief bill extends the federal eviction moratorium through Jan. 31, 2021. Similarly, last week Gov. Inslee extended the state eviction moratorium to March 31, 2021.

Gov. Inslee initially allocated $120 million of the state’s share of the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) for rental assistance for “low-income renters experiencing hardship related to COVID-19.” However, on Dec. 18, that amount was reduced to $110 million. According to the Department of Commerce, they were unable to use $10 million because there wasn’t enough time to review all applications before the then-deadline of Dec. 30, 2020. (The $10 million was reallocated for use elsewhere. Then, the new relief bill extended the deadline to use CRF money to Dec. 31, 2021.)

Additionally, Gov. Inslee has proposed using $328.0 million in state funds for rent assistance over three years. His 2021 supplemental budget proposal includes $22.1 million from the general fund–state (GFS), $41.9 million from the home security fund account, and $100.0 million from the budget stabilization account (the rainy day fund). His 2021–23 budget proposal includes $152.0 million from the GFS for FY 2022 and $12.0 million from the GFS for FY 2023.