The county of San Diego is now accepting applications for their Emergency Rental Assistance program, ERAP, for eligible households who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and need assistance with rent and utilities.
The program is administered by county officials but funded by an estimated $52.5 million in state funding and $49 million in funding from the federal government.
The rental assistance program serves residents in the unincorporated areas of San Diego county and most smaller cities within the county including National City and Imperial Beach. San Diego and Chula Vista received funding directly from the federal and state governments so residents in those municipalities do not qualify for this program.
National City Housing Authority Director Carlo Aguirre said officials have been tracking community calls for service through 2-1-1 to better determine what type of help residents need. He believes that calls for service are connected to housing, all part of the same economic picture.
“From October through December we had almost 1,200 calls for basic needs including utility and housing assistance. That’s pretty significant,” Aguirre said.
The county-administered program is “a crucial lifeline” said Aguirre, because it can help with money owed in arrears.
“This is a piece of the puzzle that is going to help people pull through the pandemic. Paying off rent and utilities in arrears is a huge need for residents to get caught up, economically and I appreciate all levels of government coming together on this as it can make the most impact,” Aguirre said.
To qualify for the program, the combined income of all persons in a household must fall at or below 80% Area Median Income. A chart of those totals can be found at www.sandiegocounty.gov on the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program information page, as well as a list of qualifying cities.
Initial priority will be given to families with a household income at or below 50% of the area median income where one or more household members are unemployed at the time of application and have not been employed for 90 days prior to that date.
Secondary priority will be given to single-parent households in areas that are considered lower on the Healthy Places Index, which can be found at www.healthyplaces.org.
In addition to benefiting some county residents, the program offers incentives to landlords who are willing to reduce the total amount of past-due rent. The county will compensate 80% of an eligible household’s rental arrears accumulated from April 2020 to March 2021 if a landlord agrees to accept the 80% payment as payment in full of the rental debt owed by the tenant. Past due rent will be paid directly to those landlords who agree to forgive the remaining debt.
Landlords are not obligated to participate in the program but those who insist on collecting 100% of past due rent will not be paid directly by the county. Instead, the program may pay the eligible household 25% of rental arrears directly to the tenant.
This program not only benefits tenants who are in arrears but landlords who are subject to a “domino effect” where they will be next in line to suffer economically without receiving rent owed, whether it is from tenants or a relief program, Aguirre said.
“Landlords have mortgages that, left unpaid, could lead to foreclosures which has an impact on the housing market. Housing is a pretty significant cost and if you can at least maintain the housing situation, you can buy time to deal with other issues like employment,” Aguirre said.
Only one application per residence will be permitted.
Visit www.ERAPSanDiego.org to apply for the program.
