HARRISBURG — Outrage. Disappointment. Disbelief.

That’s how housing advocates in Berks County reacted when they found out, in late September, that the county’s federally funded pandemic rental assistance program — a lifeline for keeping low-income families in their homes — would soon stop taking new applications.

Berks County is the first in Pennsylvania forced to turn renters away — even though officials there once worried they would never spend all of the money. It’s particularly notable given that Reading, the county seat, has long had one of the highest eviction rates in the state.

Now, tenant advocates worry that renters still struggling with pandemic debts and a persistent shortage of safe and affordable housing have lost a crucial source of aid — even as millions of rent relief dollars sit unspent in other parts of the state.

“Every single day, I get more and more people in here, and they’re desperate,” said Lawrence Berringer, executive director of Berks Community Action Program, a local nonprofit that serves low-income families. “I’ve got people crying in the lobby that can’t get help.”

When Congress approved almost $47 billion for rent relief across two stimulus packages, the move was hailed as a historic investment in struggling tenants, cash-strapped landlords and the rental market as a whole. The aid covers late and ongoing rent, as well as utilities, for as long as 18 months in some cases.

But in Pennsylvania, where each county runs its own assistance program, most of the federal dollars were not targeted to areas with the most renters. That has left some rural counties with more money than they can spend, while urban counties with more renters don’t have enough to meet the demand, putting them at a significant disadvantage.

The largest city, Philadelphia, will run out of money in about a month, prompting officials to request another $485 million to keep up with the overwhelming demand. About 125 miles to the west, officials in Cumberland County told the state they have almost $9 million they can’t spend. And sparsely populated Forest County, in northwestern Pennsylvania, only expects to use one-fifth of the money it has received.