City plans to add $19 million in rent relief
Turner stresses an ‘overwhelming need’ for more funds after initial $15M dried up quickly
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Friday said the city plans to add at least $19 million to its relief program to help tenants struggling to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he called on the federal and state governments to add substantially more funding.
The $19 million is on top of $15 million the city devoted to the fund in May, which quickly dried up after its launch. Harris County has allocated $25 million, including $10 million this week, to similar programs.
For the new funding, the city is pitching in $15 million and the remaining $4 million will come from private organizations: the Houston Endowment has offered $2 million, and the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund and Kinder Foundation each has contributed $1 million. Turner said he has reached out to other groups and hopes the fund will grow to as much as $25 million by the time City Council takes up the measure Wednesday.
“The city is doing what it can to address an overwhelming need, and it is an overwhelming need,” Turner said, acknowledging the money would not meet demand. “Cities cannot do this alone. We cannot. The need is too great.”
The additional funding comes as Turner has resisted calls from advocates and a joint HoustonHarris County task force on housing to adopt a grace period ordinance to give renters more time to catch up on late payments before they can be evicted. Advocates say it would help keep residents who do not receive assistance in their homes.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Turner said “there’s no reason” for such an ordinance. He said Friday the Houston Apartment Association, which was part of the task force, is working to voluntarily implement that policy. The association does not include all landlords in the city.
Turner also has said such a
policy would merely push off the financial burden, instead of eliminating it.
“What we are attempting to do is not to place renters in a deeper hole but to remove the liability of many of them,” Turner said.
Federal and state moratoriums on evictions have expired, leaving residents vulnerable to losing their homes in August.
Clay Hicks, president of the Houston Apartment Association, said many of its members deferred or canceled rent payments and late fees in March and April, but that approach was not sustainable.
“Those contributions and deferrals have put a huge strain on the small business owners who operate roughly half of Houston’s apartments,” Hicks said. “We believe rental assistance is the best way to remedy the stress being put on both housing providers and residents.”
The first round of the rent relief program, doled out on a first-come, firstserved basis, was exhausted within 90 minutes of its launch.
The nonprofit Baker Ripley administered the funds in May and will do so again under the city’s plan for a second round. This time, however, the city will employ a new approach, developing a matrix to evaluate the need of applicants and direct the money accordingly.
“We want to provide these dollars to where the most needs are,” Turner said. “We want to leverage our dollars.”
Bob Fleming, a leader with The Metropolitan Organization, a coalition of churches that advocates for low-income congregants, said he was encouraged the city made that strategic change. Still, he said the city should mold its program after the one operated by Harris County, which he said used a sophisticated matrix to assess need, gave residents more options to apply besides the internet and was transparent in revealing who received money.
“It just beat the pants off the city program,” Fleming said.
It is not clear whether the eligibility requirements for the second round of funding will differ from the first. Turner said some of those requirements are mandatory because they are using federal funds for the city’s portion. He said some of the private dollars can be directed toward undocumented immigrants and others who could not access the earlier funds.
In May, the relief fund provided up to $1,056 per month to city residents who could demonstrate they were late on April or May rent payments due to the economic impact of COVID-19. They had to be current on prior rent payments, and make less than 80 percent of the area median income or qualify for certain other governmental assistance programs, such as Medicaid or SNAP.
Landlords had to apply for the relief first, and then their tenants could request grants. It is not clear whether that structure will be used with the new funds.
The money for both rounds of relief come from the $404 million the city received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The city approved a $15 million small business grant program with those funds on Wednesday.