County secures another $8.4M in aid for renters

Marin County has accepted another $8.38 million in federal aid for renters, adding to the $7.8 million it took in last month.

The funding influx comes from the coronavirus relief legislation that Congress approved in December, a sequel to the federal aid package from last year. The county must spend the money by Aug. 31 or risk losing some of it.

The funds can be used to pay owed rent and utility bills incurred from April 1, 2020, through March 31.

Landlords aren’t the only ones waiting to be paid. At the end of last year, some 7,500 Marin Municipal Water District customers, 12% of the district’s total, had bills that were more than 60 days overdue. The district is giving ratepayers up to five years to pay their overdue bills.

The county’s new relief program is designed to have tenants and landlords file applications jointly. If landlords agree to forgo payment of 20% of the amount owed, grant money may be

used to pay the remaining 80%. If landlords decline to participate, tenants may still apply for a grant to cover 25% of their back rent from the period.

A state law signed on Sept. 1 provided eviction protection to tenants who paid 25% of the rental debt they accrued between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31.

On Jan. 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 91, which extended the eviction moratorium through June 30. Under SB 91, tenants must pay 25% of back rent accrued since Sept. 1 by June 30 or be subject to eviction.

Joby Tapia, secretary of the Marin Rental Property

Association, said the county is still ramping up administration of the program, and it has been difficult for landlords to seek information over the phone.

“It's too early to tell if any landlords are going to say yes or no,” Tapia said. “I think it is going to be a good program at the end of the day for the owners who are hurting the most.”

Leelee Thomas, a county planning official, told the Board of Supervisors this week that the county is assembling a team that will include five bilingual intake workers from a community organization. A consultant will be hired also to develop software for an online application and reporting process.

Prior to this new infusion of rental assistance funding, about $5.7 million

had been dedicated to this purpose, with $2.5 million coming from the Marin Community Foundation, $2.24 million from the federal government and $1 million from the county's general fund.

Thomas said until now the county has contracted with community organizations to dispense the rental assistance funds.

“We are restructuring the program to respond to some of the requirements under the state and federal guidelines,” she said.

Chief among those are the short deadlines for spending the money.

“Our rental assistance team will be balancing these quick expenditure guidelines with our equity goal, ensuring that those who have been most disproportionately impacted by

the pandemic will receive assistance,” Thomas said.

Thomas said that since the beginning of the pandemic, the county has overseen about 1,800 rental payments totaling more than $4 million to landlords. She said there are another 1,900 names on the county's rental assistance waiting list.

With the recent $16.2 million disbursements of federal grant money, Thomas expects to meet the needs of everyone on the waiting list with money left to spare.

Supervisor Katie Rice asked Thomas if the funding might wipe out all of the back rent owed by Marin residents because of the pandemic.

“We don't have an estimate of total arrears,” Thomas said. “We really don't know what is out

there.”

Thomas said it is difficult to gauge the total need since the county has focused so far on getting rental assistance to the most economically disadvantaged Marin residents, people at or below 30% of area median income.

The first of two application periods for the new grant money will prioritize people at 50% or below the area median income.

Thomas said the county has discovered, surprisingly, that some of Marin's poorest residents, many of them Latino, have managed to pay their rent during the pandemic.

“They've borrowed from family, friends, employers or check cashing companies,” Thomas said. “In some way, they've scraped it together.”