Dade triples its rent-relief program. Applications will be available soon
Miami-Dade County spent about $20 million on rent relief last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. That number is about to be swamped by the next wave of federal dollars heading to the Miami area.
County commissioners on Wednesday approved a $61 million program to cover unpaid rent for tenants hurt by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Funded through the federal stimulus bill passed in December, the program will cover up to $3,000 per month starting as far back as March
2020.
Tenants apply for the relief, but landlords receive the dollars. Landlords can also refer their tenants to the program, and case workers hired by the county will contact the renters to start the application process.
WHEN WILL APPLICATIONS OPEN?
Applications aren’t available yet. Michael Liu, the county’s housing director, said he hoped to let tenants start applying for the aid by March 1. The county is hiring dozens of case workers and operators to manage the application process and field inquiries online and by phone.
Miami-Dade funded its prior rent-relief programs using a portion of the $474 million in CARES Act dollars that it received from Washington last spring. That included programs for veterans and rent-relief initiatives launched by cities using county CARES dollars. About 8,400 families received help through those programs, Liu said.
The new federal program directs the full $61 million to be spent on rental relief and administrative costs, with stricter guidelines than were used to govern the CARES dollars.
Priority in the new program goes to low-income households (a family of four earning less than $45,700), followed by households making up to 80% of the area’s median income (a cap of $73,120 for a family of four).
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the outlines of the program at a press conference last week. She said priority would go to tenants far enough along in the
eviction process that their landlord has received a court writ to have county police remove them.
MOST EVICTIONS ARE FROZEN
Those court papers are frozen at the moment, with county police under orders from Levine Cava not to serve residential evictions filed after the COVID-19 emergency began in March. Her predecessor, Carlos Gimenez, had issued a similar order to police at the start of the pandemic last spring.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Oliver Gilbert objected to giving an advantage to landlords pursuing evictions after Miami-Dade had all but shut down the eviction process. He endorsed equal help for landlords who are owed rent but haven’t taken their tenants to court.
“They waited. Because the mayor told them to wait,” he said. “Be careful that we’re not incentivizing the conduct we previously prohibited.”
Liu said he thinks the relief pot is large enough to accommodate most tenants who either seek help or are referred into the program by landlords.
“I don’t think it will end all of the eviction problems,” he said. “I do think we’ll be able to take care, I would say, the majority of the cases.”
While the county was the only Miami-Dade government to receive money last year under the CARES Act, both Miami and Hialeah are receiving rental-relief dollars under the $25 billion national program signed into law in December by then-President Donald Trump.
Hialeah received about $7 mil
lion from the program, according to a Liu memo, and Miami $14 million. Residents of those cities will initially be disqualified for the county rental-relief program but allowed to apply if funds run out in their municipality.
A Feb. 17 report by the commission’s auditor office documented about 3,000 eviction writs issued in 2020, representing about a third of the nearly 11,000 eviction cases. That’s actually a decrease from prior years. In 2019, there were almost 18,000 eviction cases filed and 9,000 writs issued.
The decrease has Miami-Dade bracing for a flood of eviction cases once the legal system opens up again. A federal eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remains in place through March, and Levine Cava continues to bar county police from evicting people in 2020 proceedings tied to back rent.
“Our landlords are desperate,” said Commissioner Eileen Higgins, the sponsor of the rent-relief item.
Also on Wednesday, commissioners approved $100,000 to set up an online portal with the Miami-Dade Circuit Court designed to steer landlords and tenants into mediation and away from eviction actions.
Sponsor Raquel Regalado said she expects the court system to get the website up in the coming weeks. “I want it up before the end of March,” she said. “I know once the CDC order goes away, there’s going to be a flood.”
men were taken to a hospital after an early morning robbery led to gunfire in a residential Lauderhill neighborhood, police said.
Officers were dealing with a broken-down vehicle early Thursday in the 3400 block of Inverrary Boulevard when a white Hyundai Elantra with three men and a woman inside pulled up.
The people asked the police for help. They said they had been robbed and shot.
Officers immediately called paramedics and began investigating, said Lauderhill police Lt. Michael Santiago, the departgery, ment’s spokesman.
The three men were taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Two of the men were in stable condition and one was in surThree Santiago said. The woman was not injured.
Based on what detectives were told, the robberyturned-shooting happened at 3862 NW 68th Way. The area is a quiet residential neighborhood just a few minutes from where the officers were handling the stopped vehicle, Santiago said.
Santiago says none of the victims live in the area. Police say they are “young adults” but have not disclosed their names or ages.
The group was driving to the hospital when they spotted the Lauderhill officers and asked for help, he said.
Their Elantra’s front passenger side window was shattered. There were bullet holes in the rear window and the rear passenger side of the car, Santiago said.
Detectives are working to learn key details: What was taken during the robbery? Did the robbery and shooting happen outside of the car? Was the group driving on the street when it happened?
Anyone who saw something that can help with the investigation is asked to call police.
FOUR PEOPLE INSIDE A WHITE CAR STOPPED LAUDERHILL OFFICERS AND
SAID THEY WERE ROBBED AND SHOT AT, POLICE SAY. THREE MEN WERE TAKEN TO A HOSPITAL.