RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia has distributed a larger share of the rental funds it received than any other state in the country, and housing advocates want to see the state continue the trend with more protections for renters.

Since January, Virginia has distributed more than $300 million of its $524 million from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said that's due in part to Virginia being one of the first states to set up a rental assistance program in June 2020 through the CARES Act.

"Nothing helps as much as having a rental-assistance program so that when people lose their jobs, when people have an unexpected expense, they have somewhere to turn to fill the gap and to pay their rent," she said. "No change in the law is going to do that, except having this fund continue."

Virginians in need of help paying rent can determine their eligibility and apply online on the state's Department of Housing and Community Development website.

Marra and other advocates have suggested it took being "shamed" for Virginia to become a national model for rental assistance. A 2018 report from Princeton University's Eviction Lab found five of the 10 largest cities with the highest eviction rates in the country are in Virginia. Since then, the state has enacted more safeguards for renters.

Kathryn Howell, co-director of the RVA Eviction Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University, said it's a good start, but more can be done.

"Investment in counsel - and in fact, even a right to counsel - I think could be a really powerful way of making sure those tenants who have rights know how to exercise them, because it's really hard as a tenant to know all the things," she said. "They're not experts in housing law; they're not experts in understanding eviction and what rights they have."

Virginia is receiving an additional $465 million in rental assistance through the American Rescue Plan.

Engineers with the University of Maine say the successful construction of the world's first bio-based, 3D-printed house could help alleviate the state's critical shortage of affordable housing.

The University's Advanced Structures and Composites Center has unveiled a 600 square-foot single-family home made entirely of recycled wood fibers and bio-resins, and built using the world's largest 3D printer.

Professor Habib Dagher, executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the University, called the "BioHome3D" a radical solution to a tough problem.

"It gives us an opportunity to have sustainable housing for generations to come," said Dagher. "So, essentially, we're growing everything we're building our homes with."

Engineers worked around the shortage of building materials by using wood waste, already in ample supply at Maine's sawmills. Dagher said his lab is currently scaling up the automation process and could eventually print one biohome every 48 hours.

It's estimated that Maine is currently in need of nearly 20,000 homes. The shortage has been exacerbated by pandemic-related price increases in building materials, as well as the state's continuing labor shortage.

Dagher said the BioHome has held up well through some extreme winter storms, and also drawn attention from fair housing advocates across the globe.

"I think all of us would feel a big sense of accomplishment when we're starting to help people on the street have access to cost-effective homes," said Dagher. "And that's the moment we're building for right now, as a team."

That moment could arrive soon for Dagher and his team.

Their lab - along with Penquis, a regional community action agency - has already received federal funding to build the first 3D-printed neighborhood for unhoused people in the Bangor area.

Native Americans in Montana face a slew of challenges to finding housing off reservations - including discrimination. A tight housing market in the state and across the country presents its own problems for finding an affordable place to live.

But Les Left Hand, program director for All Nation Youth Partner for Success in Billings, said his last name was a barrier for him and his wife when they were looking for a home, and added eventually they used her maiden name on applications.

"When she applied for some of these places as just 'Leslie Martin' they were more open to that until they saw my name on there." he said. "Then that's when the red flags were waved and, of course, some of them were just outright not willing to talk to us."

Left Hand's organization works to prevent drug use among young people ages nine to 20 and he said people they work with, as well as his friends and family, have similar experiences. Rental costs like security deposits and first and last months' rent can be challenges as well. Census data finds more than a quarter of Native Americans live in poverty.

Left Hand said young people especially find it hard to move off their reservations because they are not as financially established.

"It's frustrating for them and that's when they give up and go back home and have to live in a tight, cramped household again because we don't really turn away any of the family members that do come back," Left Hand said. "We just accommodate until they can find a better resource or a different avenue."

Analyses on housing issues for Native Americans are scarce but a study from before the pandemic found 16% of Native Americans reported overcrowding, compared with 2% of the U.S. population as a whole.

Left Hand said organizations like the Native American Development Corporation can help people who feel they have been discriminated against, or are having trouble looking for housing. Most of all, he encourages people to be persistent.

"I'm always willing to help people out and try to steer them in the right direction and then just give them the hope that there is somebody out there that might have an opportunity to open a door and then they succeed in that area," he said. "But then like I tell them, don't give up so easily."

About $3-million has been awarded to Virginia groups helping people facing evictions. The Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot Program is designed to find effective services for people facing housing instability. According to the R-V-A Virginia Eviction Lab's third quarter report, eviction filings increased 86% from the previous quarter, with Charlottesville seeing some of the largest increases. Much of this is due to pandemic-related renter protections being lifted.

Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said while this third round of funding is a much-needed financial boost, it is not enough.

"The programs that are getting the funding now are not getting enough to meet the need in their area," Marra said. "And so, while the eviction rates for every locality that has a VERP-funded program serving it did go down, there is a lot of room for improvement."

She added that in the past, one of the groups that received funding went through it in two months. As the Virginia General Assembly's legislative session gets under way, tenant's rights legislation is one issue at the forefront of legislators' minds. One such piece of legislation, the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, seeks to increase the grace period for late rent, and would allow tenants to break leases when they move in and find a unit is uninhabitable.

While these grants are working to alleviate the eviction crisis, Marra hopes proposals for other tenant assistance programs will be taken up as well. One in particular is the Virginia Housing Stability Fund, which would be a state housing voucher program.

Marra acknowledged it won't come cheap, but said this program could aid numerous families.

"What we're asking for is for 90 million, and this would be a one-time ask for this pilot program to serve 5,000 households over the period of four years," she said.

In addition to gathering data, this program will also provide longer-term financial support than most VERP. The program hopes to bridge the gap between the shortage of affordable housing and the numerous Virginians who qualify for the federal housing voucher program, but can't receive it due to limited federal funding.