Westmoreland County received almost $13 million in emergency rental and utility bill funding to help residents who were at risk of losing a place to live or the means to heat or power it because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But according to Union Mission Executive Director Dan Carney, just 11% of that money has been distributed.

Carney said about $1.5 million has gone to 270 applicants in the past three months. Another 45 have payments approved.

That is great for those people. The money is doing what it was intended to do: giving a helping hand to people who experienced reversals in the pandemic restrictions.

The issue is the other 89% of the money and the July 31 deadline to use it up. The Biden administration said in June that there was not likely to be another extension on the program.

It seems unlikely the county has only 11% of the need. Indeed, there is good evidence there were more people who could have benefited from the program. Overall, 592 were applications received; 119 were rejected for not meeting the income threshold or because whatever problem they were experiencing could not be tied specifically to the pandemic.

That seems like a failing in the way the money was allocated.

Housing problems are not something that popped up along with covid-19. Finding affordable workforce housing — not low-income housing but something for a family with working parents or something close to an economic center — is the kind of ongoing treadmill problem that regularly pops up on things like a master plan for a community. It is, for example, part of the Westmoreland County comprehensive plan.

The rules of the available pot of money spell out that someone has to make 80% or less than the median income. The U.S. Census Bureau puts median household income in the county at $60,471, meaning a family has to have a collective income under $48,000 or so to qualify for help.

Two parents making more than $12 an hour might not make the cut. That seems particularly unfair given how much jobs have fluctuated over the past year. An employer might be open one week, closed the next, open again a week later. A worker doing delivery work for Instacart or Door Dash might be flush one week but without orders the next because of how many other drivers were picking up shifts.

People at or below the median income often exist paycheck to paycheck. To dangle assistance but tie it up with strings that make it unreachable is cruel.

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