WASHINGTON (Reuters] – More than $2.8 billion was distributed in October by local and state governments to help more than 521,000 renters. This is according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which forecasts that 25 billion to 30 billion dollars in such funds will be used or obligated at the end the year.

After slow progress in the beginning, the Treasury stated that its recent efforts to allow state and local governments greater flexibility in the distribution of funds have helped to accelerate renters’ access to the money.

According to the Treasury’s latest update, more than 2.5million renters have received payments.

For ERA 1 alone, the Treasury estimates that at least 80% of the program’s funding will be spent or obligated by year-end, nine months before the deadline for grantees to spend their initial allocations.

Nearly 130 grantees started to use their ERA 2 funds by the end October.

Although the Treasury stated it had started to redeploy unused funds, the Treasury indicated that only a very small portion of the available money would be made due to rapid progress in the ERA program.

Treasury also encourages state and localities, as well as those with the Coronavirus State Fund and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds of $350 Billion, to help renters.

As the U.S. economy continues to recover from severe disruptions caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, the vacancy rate for residential rentals fell further during the third quarter. This could indicate that inflation may be on the horizon.

While the discussion about whether current high inflation levels are temporary is heated, rent vacancy rates will continue to be closely monitored. The September 2001 peak in rents was the highest since 2001, which helped to increase consumer prices.