Hall County began taking applications for its federally funded COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program in April 2021, and one county finance official said the program has been very successful since its launch.
The program is aimed at assisting those struggling with rental payments due to hardship from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dena Bosten, director of financial services with the county, said they received about $6.2 million in the first allocation of funding through the U.S. Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
At least 65% of these funds were required to be used prior to Sept. 30, 2021, which led Hall County to make some adjustments to the program.
Bosten said originally, the program required landlords to apply on behalf of their tenants, and the funding also had a per case funding cap of $12,500, or 12 months of assistance.
“We took a good hard look at our policies and decided that payments to tenants were acceptable,” Bosten said.
As of last month, the $12,500 funding cap was removed, and the monthly limit was also raised to 15 months.
After these changes were made, Bosten said the county surpassed the 65% allocation requirement. If the requirement had not been met, the county would have had to return some of the funds.
Another change to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, known as ERAP 2.0, will go into effect in early October.
“The major difference is we will be including utilities, and we will extend the amount of rental, and now utility assistance, that one can receive up to 18 months,” Bosten said.
Once 2.0 launches, an individual that has received the full 15 months of assistance under the original program will be eligible for three additional months of rental assistance, as well as the full 18 months of utility assistance.
Currently, ERAP 2.0 is scheduled to launch at some point within the first two weeks of October.
Anyone interested in applying or learning more about the program can visit the Hall County website or call 855-718-4630.
