LINCOLN- Some Nebraskans struggling to pay their rent may get a hand this fall, thanks to delayed federal pandemic aid and a change of policy in the Governor’s Office. Recently, Gov. Jim Pillen accepted $48.2 million of federal emergency rental assistance money that former Gov. Pete Ricketts refused to take. Now the state must prepare an application and disruption system that most states already have in place.

Shannon Harner, executive director of the Nebraska Investment Financing Authority, said the money will be available to help renters in all but Douglas and Lancaster Counties, she said. Those counties, plus Omaha and Lincoln, got their share of aid directly from the federal government last year. People in Nebraska’s 91 other counties had been left to go without the help, which represented the second round of emergency rental assistance offered to the state.

Ricketts repeatedly refused to take the money, even vetoing a bill that would have required him to apply for it. He argued that the COVID-19 emergency was over and the state’s strong economy did not warrant accepting federal aid. Pillen has taken a different stance, arguing that the state should make use of federal dollars to help lift up the working poor.

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