Struggling to pay rent? City can help

Low-income Eureka residents have the ability to get some financial assistance to help them pay rent.

Renters making up to 80% of the median income of $45,528, though that number varies based on household size, in Humboldt County can get help with two months of rent, or up to $2,500, through the city of Eureka’s COVID-19 assistance fund program. People making 50% or less of the average median income will be prioritized.

The program is specifically intended to help people who have been impacted by COVID-19, whether they’ve had their hours cut or have had to stay home to take care of kids that are home from school, among other things, said Kristen Raymond, the city’s contact person for the program.

“You can do the application all online,” Raymond said, “but there are some documents they have to provide with it.”

These documents include lease agreements, monthly mortgage statements and verification of income through their employer, Raymond said.

Some people may look at the application and think they don’t qualify for a variety of reasons, she said. For instance, an unemployed person might have made too much to qualify for the program when they were employed, Raymond said.

That person should call her and find out their options because the city is “willing to work with anybody,” Raymond said. People with questions or who want to drop off their applications can still stop by City Hall, she said.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/30q2JcV or call Raymond at 707441-4209.

“We have had some people take advantage of this program,” acting City Manager Pam Powell told the Eureka City Council at a special meeting Monday, “but we definitely do have some capacity for more people to take advantage.”

There’s about $100,000 left in that account, Powell said.

Some members of the council said they felt there should be more assistance for renters to be able to pay back what they owe, while others said more assistance should be available to landlords, too.

Councilmember Natalie Arroyo suggested a zerointerest loan for landlords without federally backed mortgages to cover the amount of the back rent while tenants worked on repaying them. Homeowners with federally backed mortgages were granted relief in the form of stalling foreclosures and reducing or pausing mortgage payments.

“I also really like the idea of creating a mechanism where we get to keep funding in the Housing Successor Fund for other needs in

the future,” Arroyo said. “So if it is a good remedy for some people to get a zero-interest loan that is just for the amount of rent that they deferred then I think that would be very fiscally responsible of us and would be a nice gesture to landlords.”

Eureka’s Finance Director Lane Millar said using money from the Housing Successor Fund for zerointerest loans may not meet the requirements around how to use that money, but the city “could find other sources of cash to make the zero-interest loans.”

“My concern is what do we use as collateral or how do we ensure that we get our money back,” Millar said.