Applications for rental assistance to open March 1
$28.1 million in aid will be available to thousands in the area
Applications for $28.1 million in emergency rental and utility assistance for thousands of people in Memphis and Shelby County will open March 1 at a specially-created signup website, home901.org.
Those seeking rental assistance, whether they live in Memphis or Shelby County, will have one place to go when seeking the help. They will be asked to fill out an online form stating their need and provide proof that the pandemic has, either directly or indirectly, impacted their ability to pay.
The money, which the federal government gave Memphis and Shelby County separately, is being pooled by the Memphis Division of Community and Housing Development and Shelby County Division of Community Services to broaden the impact of the federal dollars and to make it easier for people to find.
“We recognize that, when people are seeking relief, going to different organizations and trying to figure out ‘am I city or am I county? Can I find this program or that program?’ is really a barrier in folks getting served and so we recognized the opportunity that we had to really get rid of that barrier through a single application,” said Dorcas Young Griffin, the county’s director of community services.
While the resources are being pooled, $19.5 million the city of Memphis received will only go to Memphis residents and the $8.6 million that Shelby County received can go to Memphis residents or people who reside in other Shelby County municipalities, Paul Young, the city’s head of housing and community development said.
Young Griffin said Memphis and Shelby County will continue to work with Memphis-area Legal Service, the University of Memphis Law School and Neighborhood Preservation, Inc and use some of its federal aid as an eviction settlement fund to keep renters that landlords are attempting to evict in their homes through the court system.
How much of the money will be spent on eviction settlement — people who already have eviction proceedings underway — and renters who are behind on rent or utilities is to be determined, Young and Young Griffin said. Nationwide, an eviction moratorium remains in effect. However, the economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused thousands of Memphis renters to fall behind and prompted the need for millions in rental assistance.
Young and Young Griffin, who are brother and sister, said they don’t have a total estimate of need in Memphis and Shelby County, but are surveying landlords to see what percentage of tenants are paying rent and should have further data in the coming weeks. While they may not have a hard dollar figure, they know there is real need.
“We know that there are large sums of rent that are due. Some of the clients that received support to other programs over the past year are still in need. We know some of them will probably be reapplying, which they will be eligible for,” Young, the city of Memphis HCD director, said. “With this program, we can provide up to 12 months of support.”
How much money people will be able to get is still being determined, Young Griffin said.
“We are literally building the airplane as we are flying it with this new money. It’s a historic amount of money. We have never received this kind of money for this kind of service in our community at one time ever,” Young Griffin said.