Editorial: Rental assistance flub is object lesson in government screw-ups

Imagine you have fallen into a hole.

You have no way out on your own. You can’t climb out. You have no tools at your disposal. You’re stuck — and to make matters worse, it looks like you can’t stay put either. There’s water coming in, rising fast and threatening to drown you.

Someone walks by and calls down to you.

“Hey,” the person says. “I have a rope ladder here that could probably help you.”

You are relieved. It’s a way out, just in the nick of time.

But wait, the person tells you. First you have to prove that you really need the ladder.

If you think that is ridiculous, wait until you hear about the rental assistance money in Westmoreland County.

The county qualified for more than $36 million in federal funding over the last two years, part of a pot of cash given to help renters in desperate straits during the coronavirus pandemic. The funds were broken into three chunks.

The first portion — $10.4 million — helped no one, yet the office that had to deal with it still spent $100,000 to cover administrative costs. The rest was wrapped in red tape and returned to sender.

Why? Because it was just too hard to qualify for help.

The restrictions have loosened for the subsequent disbursements. The second — $12.5 million — is gone. This is unsurprising given how many people should have benefited by the first portion.

This is an object lesson for commissioners and agencies as they move forward with other funding — American Rescue Plan money, the opioid settlements and even the windfalls of gambling revenues.

It is important to not just look at the funds like a giant lottery check. You have to look for the strings attached, waiting to snatch it away. By the same token, the county should be careful about the strings as it sets up new programs itself.

This is critical because something like rental assistance is great for courting goodwill, and politicians of every party and every level are happy to take a little piece of the credit.

Everyone is happy when you say you are showing up with a ladder to help people out of a hole. But few people are around when the person at the bottom learns the ladder isn’t coming but the water is continuing to rise.