Washington County rental help to return

Officials: Treasury gives half of what was expected

FAYETTEVILLE — A rental assistance program that shut down April 1, leaving up to 1,229 people without rent money for March and April, will resume next week, Washington County officials said Thursday.

“That’s a start; that’s a positive thing,” Patsy Warren-Cook said Thursday after hearing the program will be reactivated.

Warren- Cook is a disabled Air Force veteran who had been approved for rental assistance through the county and received a notice on April 1 that the money was not available. She said Thursday she has been trying to make payment arrangements with her landlord but her offers have so far been rejected.

“It will really help me get through,” Warren-Cook said.

The county’s Emergency Rental Assistance program was shut down after Washington County did not receive about $3.4 million in expected federal funding, county attorney Brian Lester said April 4 during a meeting of the Quorum Courts County Services Committee.

Treasurer Bobby Hill said he received notice from the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday that the county was receiving $1.7 million. Hill said there was no explanation why the county has not received the $3.4 million that had been expected or if the remaining $1.7 million will be released in the future.

Lester released a statement Thursday afternoon from County Judge Joseph Wood, saying that the county has received $1.7 million in federal funding and the rental assistance program will resume making payments on April 21 to those who have already been approved. Assistance payments will be limited to two months, March and April, and subject to available funds.

In the statement, the county said there are 1,229 participants in the ERA-2 program. Lester said he did

not know how many of those people were still active applicants.

Monique Jones runs the food pantry at St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville. Jones was one of several county residents who unsuccessfully lobbied the justices of the peace at Tuesday’s Finance and Budget Committee meeting to use other county funds to keep the program operating. Jones said Thursday’s announcement was good news for those who had been promised the money and had made plans based on receiving it.

“I’m super excited for the people who were promised the money,” Jones said. “This will ease some stress and heartache for families who depended on this.”

Evelyn Rios-Stafford, justice of the peace for District 12 in Fayetteville, said she was glad the county has received the $1.7 million but said she thought the county had “over-promised and under-delivered” on the program.

“We’ve caused a lot of stress to a lot of people,” Stafford said. “The county should only have promised the money we had. People have been making very difficult decisions, whether to pay medical bills, to make car payments or utility payments or pay rent. The way this has been mishandled and miscommunicated is entirely on the county.”

Suki Highers, justice of the peace for District 11 in Fayetteville, had proposed an ordinance that would have had the county use money from the American Rescue Plan Act to cover the shortfall in rental assistance money. A motion to approve that ordinance failed to receive a second by members of the Finance Committee on Tuesday.

Highers said she is glad the county has received the $1.7 million but she wants to make sure the program covers all of the people were were approved for assistance and the full amounts they were told they would receive.

“If the $1.7 million does not cover the obligations we made when we told people they were approved I would definitely want to look at taking what’s needed out of other existing funds,” Highers said.

Robert Dennis, justice of the peace for District 10, said he’s glad the $1.7 million has come in but he would not favor using money from other county funds to make up any shortfall.

“I’m not in favor of taking money out of another pot; that’s not how we do business,” Dennis said. “I can’t support using money from another fund when we don’t know that we’re going to be reimbursed for it. It’s not the county that’s not paying; it’s the federal government.”