What happened to the $45 billion in rent relief?

Rent relief was the solution to a possible wave of evictions. It ran headfirst into reality.

Everyone agreed that rent relief was the only way to stop a wave of millions of Americans from being evicted.

The logic was simple: Give people who were struggling during the pandemic the money to pay their rent, and landlords would have no reason to evict for nonpayment. That simplicity, and the remarkable unity from the landlord lobby and tenant advocates alike in calling for this type of relief, led Congress to allocate $25 billion in rental...