She said she was given a range of $5 million to $11.4 million but officials have been lead to believe the higher amount will be available. The money must be spent by the end of the year.
“We’ve been looking to analyze to see if there are any unfunded mandates, any unintended consequences of this that we have not been able to locate,” she said. “Although the act is over 5,000 pages.”
Boyko told the Journal-News since this is not a competitive grant the county will receive funding, the only question now is how much. A request for proposals will go out to outside providers to execute the program. Up to 10% of the total award can be used to administer the effort.
The county is the only entity that can apply for the funding because there is a 200,000 population threshold. Boyko said there are approximately 45,000 rental units countywide and recipients of the relief must be able to demonstrate their inability to pay their rent is due to COVID. Eligible renters must make below 80% of the area median income, which equates to earnings of around $45,000 for a family of two.
Community Development Manager Desmond Maaytah said local non-profits Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) and Supports to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF) have already been providing financial assistance but those funds are running out. This new money is critical.
“The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 continues to affect many job sectors and residents have been affected financially with a continuing concern that we need to keep people housed,” Maaytah said. “Many mom and pop landlords have mortgages to pay on rental units they own so rental assistance indirectly assists landlords as well with these obligations.”
In September the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released $1.9 billion in CARES Act funding, and Butler County, Hamilton and Middletown received $1.6 million to help residents with rent or mortgage payments. The new round of money does not include mortgage payment assistance.
SELF Executive Director Jeffrey Diver told the Journal-News his organization received $1.325 million in Home Relief grants from the state in November. He said they were given less than two months to spend the money and as of the Dec. 30 deadline they spent $735,209 helping 287 homeowners and renters make payments.
He said he is waiting to hear if the deadline on spending the first allocation will be extended. Under that program they could help people impacted by the pandemic make past due payments since April and upfront payments through December.
“Quite frankly the need is tremendous, we’re getting hundreds of calls every week,” Diver said. “The challenge was how do we serve all those people in such a short time. We’re hopeful that the extension does come through so we can spend the rest of that money.”
Maaytah said he is still getting guidance on the exact parameters of the grant but believes the commissioners have the ability to tailor some aspects of the program.
The commissioners agreed to apply, but they have certain conditions, for example Commissioner T.C. Rogers said he would not favor paying someone’s entire rent.
“If it’s a program where it would pay somebody, who I recognize are unfortunate, but to pay their rent for the rest of the year, without any incentive to pay at all,” Rogers said. “I feel compassion but there’s a limit here,”
Boyko said she believes there is a requirement that people will need to validate their need quarterly and they can hone those requirements.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News he wants to make sure the renters are protected from potential eviction — the federal protection against evictions expires Jan. 31 — and rent hikes.
“We’re going to make sure that if they’re behind on their rent three or four months and they get rent caught up and made current that they are not evicted,” Dixon said. “And that the rent stays stabilized so since the government’s paying they don’t end up paying twice what they were before the government assistance went into effect.”
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter said she would like to make sure they help the renters access all the programs the county offers, so they can climb out of the financial hole they might be in.
“I would love to see that be part of the program,” she said. “I know you can’t compel anybody to do it but if it’s an incentive then we have those resources here to help an individual.”
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