{"id":44604,"date":"2021-09-22T23:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-races-to-spend-federal-rental-assistance\/"},"modified":"2021-09-23T05:02:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T05:02:00","slug":"new-mexico-races-to-spend-federal-rental-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-races-to-spend-federal-rental-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico races to spend federal rental assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Several
Several executive agencies overseen by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file )<\/span>Morgan Lee<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 State agencies spent federal pandemic aid at a furious pace during the month of August, channeling about $630 million in efforts to bolster unemployment reserves, provide emergency housing assistance and promote COVID-19 vaccination efforts, the Legislature\u2019s budget and accountability office said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

An update on pandemic relief spending from the office shows that New Mexico agencies have pushed out more than half of their $10.5 billion share of federal relief tied to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Of the $6.3 billion spent so far, about 70% has gone toward unemployment benefits to prop up household income amid economic turmoil associated with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

State finance officials are racing against a deadline at the end of September to distribute at least $104 million in federal rental assistance to residential landlords and tenants or risk forfeiting additional money to the program.<\/p>\n

As of mid-September, the state had spent or assigned $51 million of that federal rental assistance. State finance officials are providing assurances that New Mexico will meet the deadline as it partners with courts to avoid housing disruptions.<\/p>\n

New Mexico is among about a dozen states that still have a moratorium on evictions for people who cannot afford to pay rent.<\/p>\n

Federal supplementary unemployment benefits of $300 a week expired in early September, but New Mexico is allowing a 13-week extension of standard benefit payments.<\/p>\n

The federal government will pay for half of those extended benefits \u2013 as long as the state\u2019s unemployment rate exceeds 6.5%. The August unemployment rate was 7.2%, down from 7.6% in July.<\/p>\n

Unemployment benefit-eligibility notices were sent to 11,000 state residents, but many already may have exhausted their benefits during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Full enrollment for a 13-week period would cost the state unemployment insurance trust $23.5 million. Ordinarily, payroll taxes underwrite the trust.<\/p>\n

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has lifted the state\u2019s once-aggressive pandemic-related restrictions on gatherings and business operations, though masks are still required in public, indoor settings.<\/p>\n

About 4,700 people have died from COVID-19 across the state of 2.1 million residents. Nearly 250,000 cases have been diagnosed.<\/p>\n

State health officials said during a briefing Wednesday that despite persistent high community transmission rates, COVID-19 cases appear to have plateaued and that hospitalizations are projected to decline in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

They also reported that 70% of New Mexicans 18 and older are now fully vaccinated. Deputy Health Secretary Laura Paraj\u00f3n called it \u201can incredible milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest state data also shows that children ages 5 to 17 make up one-fifth of the state\u2019s new COVID-19 cases but that very few of those cases have resulted in hospitalizations. Vaccinations have yet to be approved for many within that age group.<\/p>\n

In other financial developments, relief spending has been painstakingly slow when it comes to $200 million set aside from the state general fund for grants to small- and medium-sized businesses that can offset rent, lease or mortgage payments as they rehire staff members.<\/p>\n

New Mexico Finance Authority CEO Marquita Russel told legislators that about 17% of applications are declined because businesses are rehiring contract workers and not staff members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have only funded about $10 million outright,\u201d Russel said of applications to the grant program. \u201cWe have additional ones that we are currently working through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several executive agencies overseen by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. (Morgan Lee\/Associated Press file )Morgan Lee SANTA FE \u2013 State agencies spent federal pandemic aid at a furious pace during the month of August, channeling about $630 million in efforts to bolster unemployment reserves, provide emergency housing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44604"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}