The Houston-Harris County Emergency Rental Assistance Program, a pandemic-era program that distributed federal funds to landlords of tenants impacted financially by COVID, will stop accepting applications for rental assistance beginning Nov. 1.
The program also stretched funds by focusing its dwindling resources on tenants at the greatest risk of losing their homes. While in 2021, landlords could receive rent money as soon as tenants fell behind, this year, the program focused on allocating funds to landlords who had already filed for evictions.
After that change, the number of evictions filed picked up dramatically. In some cases, landlords and judges moved to have constables remove some tenants from their homes despite the fact that they had applied for rental assistance and were awaiting word about whether they were eligible and had been selected for aid. Tenants lawyers have protested such evictions,and asking a higher court to weigh in on whether the judge had followed the law.
While there is still the chance that Houston and Harris County will continue receiving reallocations, each new round of funding is smaller than the last, Partain explained. The most recent round was announced last week, with Harris County receiving $1.35 million in additional funds and Houston receiving $846,000.
As of Oct. 24, the Houston-Harris County Emergency Rental Assistance Program had distributed $311 million to eligible families, according to its website. Out of 195,000 applications submitted, 76,000 families received aid."No other program in Houston's history has been able to help that many people keep their homes," Partain said."But though the reallocations have been welcome, these funds will not continue indefinitely.