9 minute read
Rent Assistance
Cities use federal and state funds to avert a crisis
by Sheryl S. Jackson, Florida League of Cities
(Editor’s note: Quality Cities is interested in how cities successfully use federal and state funds to address issues in their community. If your city has information to share, please contact Joy Dickinson, Editor and Creative Project Manager, at jdickinson@flcities.com.)
Acombination of COVID-related unemployment and underemployment, along with rising rent prices, brought rent assistance to the forefront for cities over the past couple of years. Layoffs or reduced hours affected employees’ ability to keep up with rent payments. At the same time, rents in Florida increased dramatically. The increase in 2021 rents was about 30% over 2020. That amount compares to an annual preCOVID increase of just 3.7% in 2018 throughout the state.
Municipalities throughout Florida responded to the increased need by accessing federal funds available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The CARES Act, signed into law in March 2020, included a moratorium on evictions for late payment as well as some state funding for rent relief. With access to these funds, cities successfully avoided an eviction crisis. Each city’s strategy reflects residents’ needs as well as the city’s available staffing and technology resources.
ORLANDO TACKLES VOLUME OF APPLICATIONS
The City of Orlando felt the effects of the global pandemic early. “Even before the pandemic was recognized in the United States, we had organizations canceling conventions due to concerns about the virus, so there were hotel and restaurant layoffs in early 2020,” said Oren Henry, Director of Housing and Community Development. In early summer 2020, excess grant funds were used to provide rent assistance, and then the CARES Act provided $2.5 million to Orlando for a more formal rental assistance program. “We were able to help over 550 tenants throughout the summer of 2020,” said Henry.
Orlando’s Emergency Rental Assistance 1 (ERA1) program launched in July 2021, and in just under four months, it assisted 1,524 households, with each receiving an average of $5,100. The City’s ERA2 program opened February 1, 2022, and had 2,900 applications in process during the first week.
Image courtesy of City of Orlando
Henry’s department has 15 employees, but the increased funding for the ERA1 and ERA2 programs and the increased demand made it necessary to partner with several organizations to handle calls and applications. One great advantage of having outside support from a national organization was its call center, said Henry. “Over 700 phone calls and numerous emails were received in a short period of time as we publicized ERA2,” he said.
Henry’s staff stayed involved. “The City still has to oversee the program because ultimately, we are responsible for the results of the program,” he said. One staff person was hired to be dedicated to the COVID-19 relief fund programs. “At some point, all members of the department were involved in rent relief activities, but they also had to keep our other grant programs operating.”
PORT ST. LUCIE BRINGS ERA2 IN-HOUSE
The City of Port St. Lucie has a high percentage of homeownership (75%), so many City programs are focused on helping low-income homeowners stay in their homes with health and safety repairs made through Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Programs. “Normally, rental assistance is not in our everyday work plan, but everything changed with the pandemic,” said Alessandra Tasca, Deputy Director of Neighborhood Services. “The first round of funding supported by the CARES Act was a smaller pot of money, so we were able to gain experience with a rent relief program by focusing on the hardest-hit members of our community,” she explained. “Cities in Florida are familiar with execution of emergency plans, and this was no different, as everyone put their regular jobs on the back-burner and focused on the top needs of our residents.”
Tasca’s department of four people worked with their counterparts in St. Lucie County to administer funds from the initial CARES Act funding and ERA1. “We normally handle about $1 million in CDBG funds, but we received $6 million in rent assistance for ERA1,” said Tasca. “Working with the County enabled us to double our staff resources and provide additional social services to our residents.”
The initial partnership with the County also provided access to the library system, where residents could access online applications and help from library personnel, Tasca said. “This was a big help for our residents who do not have internet access.”
For ERA2, Port St. Lucie managed the program in-house, said Tasca. With two years of experience and a steady pace of applications, her staff handled the processing of applications well, she said.
Image courtesy of City of Port St. Lucie
WESTON SHARES EXCESS FUNDS WITH COUNTY
The City of Weston has been an entitlement city since 2011, so it has been eligible for CDBG and Florida’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP). “Both programs provide housingrelated assistance to low-to-moderate income residents, but only SHIP is specifically for rental assistance,” said Darrel Thomas, Assistant City Manager.
The City partners with Broward County to administer the rental assistance program, and this partnership eliminates the administrative costs associated with Weston administering its own program. “The City’s reporting requirements to the State are included with the County’s submittals, and the County staff provides customer service and assistance to Weston and County residents simultaneously,” said Thomas. “This arrangement allows for more grant dollars to go to rental assistance instead of administrative costs.”
With an initial spending deadline of December 31, 2020, which was only three months away, and less than 7% of residents who qualify as being at poverty level, they were concerned that they would not be able to spend all of the rental assistance funds provided for COVID relief under the CARES Act in the timeline specified for the use of the funds, said Thomas. “Funds not spent on rental assistance in Weston in the specified timeframe had to be returned to the Treasury, which meant that our neighbors within Broward County could not benefit from any unspent assistance,” he said.
The solution for Weston was to enter into an agreement with Broward County to administer the COVID relief funds. “Funds allocated to Weston were sent to the County, which prioritized Weston residents for assistance with that money, but also allowed funds not used by Weston residents to go to County residents outside Weston’s city limits,” said Thomas.
“Every city is different, so evaluate your needs carefully when considering how to implement a rent relief program,” said
Thomas. “We wanted to take care of Weston residents first, then help other residents in our area, and the agreement with Broward County was the best way for us to reach that goal.”
ST. PETERSBURG ADDS TECHNOLOGY
The City of St. Petersburg has 15 people in the Housing and Community Development Department who handle ongoing CDBG and SHIP grant programs with community nonprofit organizations. However, the expected volume of applications for the over $8 million in ERA1 funds allocated to the City required technology the City didn’t have, said Joshua A. Johnson, Housing and Community Development Director. The solution was to share the Neighborly platform used by the County.
“Our funds were separate from the County’s funds, and our operations were partitioned from the County’s operations, but we were able to share the technology,” explained Johnson. “Immediate access to the platform versus going through a procurement process for new technology enabled us to ramp up our operations quickly in order to meet the spending deadline.” While a vendor’s call center handled the day-to-day interactions with applicants to walk them through the application process, City staff reviewed applications, communicated with residents following submission of applications and issued checks.
“We were surprised at the response to the rent relief programs,” admitted Johnson.
LESSONS LEARNED
All cities promoted the availability of rent relief to their residents via press releases, social media and city websites. Port St. Lucie and Weston took steps to ensure the information reached residents who needed help.
“We published information in both English and Spanish and provided the full text in both languages,” said Thomas. Adding a statement that information in other languages is at a different site meets the letter of the law, but it isn’t convenient to the person who doesn’t speak English, he said.
“Boots on the ground” is the approach taken by the Port St. Lucie staff. Tasca said, “We produced flyers that staff dropped off at rental properties and housing developments to directly target people who might benefit from the program.”
Evaluate all options, and choose a strategy that fits residents’ needs but doesn’t overwhelm existing staff, suggested Johnson. “If handling the program in-house, be prepared to add temporary staff to support the program,” he said. “My staff of 16 averages more than 15 years of experience with the City, but everyone also has other programs to manage in addition to emergency programs. You don’t want to risk losing experienced staff to burnout or to having other assistance to residents fall behind.”
Sheryl S. Jackson is a Writer/Editor with the Florida League of Cities.
RESOURCES
While many municipalities offer housing support, the need for rent support programs increased after the expiration of the eviction moratorium in August 2021 and the end of funding from the Department of the Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs.
▸ The National League of Cities (NLC) report “Eviction Prevention: A Guide for Local Governments” is available at bit.ly/3hacumJ.
▸ ECivis, a partner of the Florida League of Cities (FLC), offers information on COVID-related grants available to cities. See flcities.com/grants for more information.
