Rental Assistance: Use It, or Lose It

Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash

Let’s talk about what rental assistance programs are still available and WHERE.

For starters, San Diego, where your average rent hovers around $2,000 a month, thousands are getting the help they need and they’re actually making ends meet. Like Paul Oviedo, who said: “We have a little bit of a view. We have some palm trees. Paying for one room there was not too bad for me. I was able to make it.”

Now that San Diego has raised his rent by $200, it’s all becoming a game of give and take, which should sound familiar for all of us just trying to make ends meet. In fact, San Diego’s area median income (AMI) allows a family of four to qualify for help with an income as high as $97,000 a year.

Azucena Valladolid, the executive vice president of Rental Assistance and Workforce Development for the San Diego Housing Commission, said: “It does sound like a lot of money. It is; the area median income is adjusted every year by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

Thankfully, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has still helped roughly 19,000 low-income households pay their rent. Those are folks at or below 30% AMI or 50% AMI.

Rent increases are happening EVERYWHERE, at least for the time being. Fortunately, we have eviction protection still available in many places.

Evictions have paused while a renter’s federal assistance application is pending in Oregon, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington, D.C.

In Los Angeles, you’re likely safe until Jan. 31, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2021 for Austin, Texas and in Seattle until Jan. 16. Same with New Jersey and New York — you are safe until January.

In Connecticut and Virginia, your landlord won’t be able to evict you until they’ve applied for federal aid themselves. Right here in Nevada, you can show that you’ve applied for rental assistance and it can be considered a defense against eviction until June 2023!

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