Tennesseans struggling to pay rent due to the pandemic may soon receive help through the state’s housing authority, as part of a statewide rental assistance program currently underway.
Funded by federal dollars, the program would help eligible tenants catch up on rent payments if they’ve experienced financial difficulties caused by the pandemic, said Ralph Perrey, director of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.
The rental relief program, which could be in place by March 1, would come in the waning days of the nationwide eviction moratorium running through March. Meanwhile, more than 1 million Tennesseans have lost their income and filed unemployment claims since last March, and tens of thousands are still waiting to receive their benefits.
“First priority for us is going to be making sure we can keep as many people as possible decently housed,” Perrey said.
Tennessee has received roughly $458 million in federal funding under the COVID-19 Rent Relief Act. More than $383 million of that would be administered by THDA and distributed to help tenants in most parts of the state, Perrey said. The agency is also allowed to spend up to 10% of the funds to cover administrative expenses.
The act allows local governments with 200,000 or more residents to receive the funds directly. In Tennessee, the remaining $75 million is split among Davidson, Knox, Rutherford, Shelby counties and Memphis, which applied for funds as a separate entity, Perrey said. The five local authorities will set up their own programs, and Memphis and Shelby County will collaborate, he said.
Tenants who lost their job or “significant income” and now make less than 80% of the area median income because of the pandemic qualify for the statewide assistance, Perrey said. The agency will prioritize residents who have been unemployed for 90 days or longer and those with earnings below half of the area median income.
Perrey said the program is estimated to help 25,000 households pay off overdue rent. Rent payments go to the landlords directly, he said. The money could also go toward late fees and utility payments, he said, and any leftover funding could help provide legal services for tenants in need.
For each household, the aid could last for up to 12 months.
“If that applicant is four months behind on their rent, we can catch them up,” he said. “And if they are still not working or remain eligible, we can make payments to their landlords for eight more months.”
Eligible tenants or their landlords will be able to apply for assistance via an online portal, Perrey said, and a call center will be available for questions about the process. Landlords applying for assistance can provide THDA with tenant information, he said, and tenants need to prove their income level and inability to afford rent due to the pandemic. A check for unemployment benefits, for example, can be proof of loss of income.
“You got to show us your current finance situation is a result of COVID,” he said. “We want to make this as easy as possible for applicants to show us what we need to see.”
Roughly 3,000 people have signed up to receive notifications once the portal is open, Perrey said. THDA is now working with Horne, a business advisory firm contracted with the state, to staff the call center and manage the website to make sure the portal functions smoothly, he said.
“We want to be sure that, when we open the portal, that we built out the system to be able to function and take in thousands of applicants right away,” Perrey said.
Despite the high volume of potential applicants, Perrey said he does not expect a wait list of them. If the funds dry up before demand does, the U.S. Treasury Department can re-evaluate the situation in the summer and redistribute funds across the nation.
“If someone has only committed 20% of their funds, Treasury can take some of all of the balance back and send it to a place that has committed 90%,” Perrey said.
THDA could also look to help other local authorities if their funds quickly burn out, he said.
“We will set up some kind of subcontracting arrangement with each of them, so that if we have sufficient reserves in these funds and they are going through theirs more rapidly, we have some abilities to shift some resources to assist them,” Perrey said.
Multiple rental assistance programs have already started helping tenants who are behind on rent payments.
For example, Nashville residents in need for help can access rental assistance through various programs set up by the city government and local groups. The city-run Metro Action Commission offers emergency assistance for three to six months to those at risk of eviction or foreclosure. Similar programs are also available at groups such as The Nashville Conflict Resolution Center, The Housing Fund and Affordable Housing Resources.
The original article was published by The Tennessean and posted here.