The City has been providing emergency rent assistance for eligible residents who have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 resulting in rent arrears. The City is using a variety of federal funds including Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-CV) and HOME Investment Partnership (HOME). The households assisted through these funds must be United States citizens or permanent residents earning no more than 80 percent Area Median Income (AMI). As of June 5, 2020, the City has served 53 households with $97,121.66 in rent assistance.

While the City is currently collecting online rent assistance applications for  a lottery to disburse an additional $336,000 in federal funds for rent assistance, there remain a significant number of residents who cannot access these rent assistance funds because they do not meet the U.S. residency requirement. Based on the initial wave of applications processed through appointments as well as the online views versus application for the second wave of funds, staff estimates that four of five households in the City needing rent assistance are ineligible to access federal funds.

The federal residency requirements prevent many households in the City from accessing rent assistance. Many of these households are employed in local area businesses and may either possess a work permit or have applied for residency but have yet to achieve status.

The need for these families to be provided with rent assistance is substantial as estimated by the number of households inquiring about rent assistance but not actually applying or failing to submit required documentation. Thus far, the City estimates that about 150 from the initial pool of 502 households fits this criteria. As of 9am on June 5th, 2,573 people visited the online housing lottery portal but only 480 applied.

In order to serve this substantial amount of households who can potentially face homelessness without fiscal intervention, the City would need a source of rent assistance funds that do not adhere to the residency requirements that apply to state and federal affordable housing funds. The Administration would support the use of General Fund monies as, if no intervention is provided, we would face an onslaught of homeless families once the eviction moratorium is lifted.

Based on current rent assistance data, $700,000 could serve up to 378 households though we expect that, as additional time passes, that most households may need up to three  months of assistance resulting in fewer households served.