Rental aid is coming to Orange County residents

Rental assistance is number one on the minds of many District 2 residents. We at the Board of County Commissioners have worked very hard over the past several weeks to determine the best way to provide relief for renters affected by rising rents, evictions, and lingering effects of financial loss due to COVID-19.

Just last week, we approved a program slated to begin in early October 2022 that could provide up to $20,000 or 18 months of assistance for affected renters. The county program will use money from the federal American Recovery Plan Act. The new outreach is known as ERA2.

District 2 Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore

I voted in favor of this program because I believe one of the best ways to assist renters in distress is to provide money for past-due rent and avoid evictions. First, the most important information to know is that the county program will serve applicants who are behind in rent by at least one month. Also, the rental household for ERA2 must fall into certain financial guidelines:

• Renter households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI)
• Tenants must provide evidence of rent owed – past due notice or eviction notice
• Tenants must provide evidence of COVID impact or financial hardship – reduced income, unemployment, rent increase

The income methods and documentation the county will require once the program opens are:

• Copy of the entire household’s 2021 Tax Return as filed with the IRS, or
• Proof of current eligibility for the entire household in another income-based federal or state program such as food stamps, or
• Address in a low-income Census tract, or
• Source documents evidencing two months of income prior to application – wage statement, paycheck stub, unemployment statement, etc.

      *Note: Additional information and/or documents may be needed to determine the COVID-19 impact or financial hardship.

You may recall our county program, known as ERA1, provided $12 million in rental assistance between August 25, 2020, and February 19, 2021. Then, from March 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022, the county provided more than $30 million in emergency rental assistance. 

This next phase of the ERA funding has some changes, such as if a landlord is unwilling to work with the renter who has suffered during the financial hardship of COVID, the tenant may be eligible to receive an arrears payment directly. 

The communications plan for the new program will be shared in a variety of formats before October 1, 2022.