LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Arkansas has made some changes to its state rent relief program to make it easier to distribute assistance to residents.

The modifications, announced last week by the Department of Human Services, came after several organizations in the state sent a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other officials, raising concerns about the application process and requesting requirements to be loosened.

The state will now prioritize applicants who received eviction notices and has increased staff to process cases faster.

Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, which signed the letter, said the move by the state is a start, but more needs to be done, especially as the Delta variant continues to surge in the state.

"We're really near the peak of our infection rate during the whole pandemic," Kopsky observed. "And it's still getting worse. This is no time to be having people being booted out of their homes and onto the street, making the public health situation even worse."

Arkansas has distributed more than $9.8 million of the $173 million it received through the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Residents in need of rent relief can sign up on the state Department of Human Services' website.

In the letter to state officials, they also ask judges to not penalize tenants for landlords refusing to accept rental assistance, which has been an issue in Arkansas.

Kopsky argued the change and others to the rent-relief program are critical to help people avoid eviction.

"This is a matter of life and death," Kopsky asserted. "We need them to hire many more people; navigators, to get this stuff out there. We need them partnering with community organizations all over the state to get the information about how to apply, how to qualify, some assistance to help people apply and get the money out the door. It's really an opportunity to protect our most vulnerable."

The changes come a week after members of Congress sent a letter to five states including Arkansas urging them to immediately speed up delivery of rental assistance.

With Virginia's Rent Relief Program ending, a flood of eviction cases has emerged.

Established during the pandemic, the program was designed to help tenants who were having trouble paying their rent, but it stopped accepting applications in mid-May. Prior to the closure, landlords could have informed tenants who were behind on their rent about the program, and could even apply for it on their behalf.

Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said when she spoke with tenants, she found something entirely different.

"They have filed all their paperwork to get the emergency rental assistance," Marra observed. "And when they call to check on the status of their application because they have an eviction hearing coming up, the people who run the program tell them that they haven't received the necessary paperwork from the landlord."

The Rent Relief Program has also seen delays in processing applications. Marra feels some problems could be prevented if landlords continued to give tenants a 14-day grace period. The grace period put in place by the legislature ended June 30. Marra cited the growing number of eviction cases as a good reason for an ongoing rental assistance program in the state.

Another factor in the eviction spike is a lack of affordable housing for Virginia renters. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, a person working at the state minimum wage of $9.50 an hour would have to work 88 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at the average market rate of just over $1,000 a month.

Marra believes the height of the pandemic was a better time for tenant law.

"I think we have a system that I think everybody now knows is not tenant-friendly," Marra asserted. "It became more tenant-friendly during the pandemic. But unfortunately, most of the improvements that were made to the landlord-tenant law in Virginia during the pandemic were time-limited, and they expired."

She added Virginia renters would also benefit from a state-funded housing voucher program, and more funding allocated for the federal Housing Choice voucher program.

In the first six months of this year, the U.S. saw a significant jump in foreclosure filings, coinciding with concerns about the pressure inflation is putting on homeowners.

A national tracking firm recently reported nearly 165,000 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, more than double the same time last year. The uptick follows the expiration of pandemic moratoriums and forbearance programs, but analysts say spikes in consumer costs are not helping.

Joe Mahon, regional outreach director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said it affects borrowers in different ways.

"It causes people to cut back on the more discretionary parts of their budget," Mahon observed. "If you're low income, you don't necessarily have a lot of discretionary spending, so there's not necessarily a lot of room to cut."

Mahon pointed out even though wages have been rising sharply, they have not kept up with inflation, hurting a person's chances to get caught up on budget concerns, such as overdue payments.

Around the state, the Minnesota Homeownership Center has partnerships with nearly 20 organizations offering free financial counseling to avoid foreclosure.

While gas prices have been trending downward, Mahon noted they are still higher than they were a year ago and homeowners might also be reeling from other energy price hikes, including natural gas and the cost of heating their home.

"Unless we see a dramatic reversal in natural gas and heating oil prices, expect higher heating costs this winter, as well," Mahon cautioned. "That's one of those things that you can only trim your spending on that so much."

As for foreclosure filings, Minnesota is in the middle pack among states for the first half of 2022, during which the real estate data company ATTOM said more than 2,100 properties around the state were in foreclosure.

Washingtonians are feeling the squeeze from high housing prices, but a novel concept launching in Spokane could speed up the creation of affordable housing.

The Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium (SLIHC) is creating a land bank to acquire land and set it aside for affordable housing. The land bank was launched in part with a $45,000 grant from the GoWest Foundation, which works with credit unions in the West.

Ezra Eckhardt, president of STCU, formerly the Spokane Teachers Credit Union, which is part of the land-bank effort, explained the program's goals.

"SLIHC would be the centerpiece of a clearinghouse to acquire both public and private land, with the specific intent of building affordable housing and workforce housing to support the needs of the community," Eckhardt stated.

Eckhardt pointed out the land bank, as a nonprofit organization, can acquire surplus property at discounted values more easily than individuals.

The completion of the North Spokane Corridor in the next five years is expected to free up parcels of land for affordable housing. Eckhardt argued it is also important to construct high-density housing outside of highway corridors, where it is typically located.

"We want to take a mindful eye on how the projects themselves are sourced and located using the concept of the land bank to tap into all of the available surplus land that is located here in our community," Eckhardt emphasized.

Even so, Eckhardt noted the region still is years away from fixing its housing woes.

"The land bank is a good, innovative idea," Eckhardt stressed. "We look forward to finding other ideas to be able to support that, and accelerate the timeline on the construction projects."