GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County has received more than $7.9 million in federal emergency rental assistance to help residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic pay for housing.
Brown County Health and Human Services applied for the money as part of the U.S. Treasury Department’s $25 billion emergency rental assistance (ERA) program established in the 2020 COVID-19 relief and omnibus spending package. Counties with 200,000 residents were eligible for direct payments if they applied for funding by the January 12th deadline. Rental payments will be covered starting after March 13th, 2020, which was the date of the national emergency declaration.
“The program can provide up to 12 months of assistance. That can also be extended for an additional 3 months, and that is covering backwards as well as potentially forwards for blocks of 3 months at a time,” said Erik Pritzl, Executive Director of Health & Human Services at Brown County.
“People can not worry about ‘where am I going to sleep at the end of the month? Is my family going to be homeless?’ They can begin to focus more on getting back to work or being at work full-time,” said Newcap, Inc. President and CEO, Cheryl Detrick. “Based on the $7.9 million, if we took the average market rent for the average size family in our community and they were going to get the full 15 months and their utilities were to be backed, we’d be able to serve 674 families…Not everybody’s going to be in that position. We’re thinking at least 1,000 families. I think there’s opportunity for additional dollars for the county if the need is greater than we believe.”
Detrick says a survey received responses from 200 families they already assist with WRAP, who noted that they were either worse-off than they were six months ago or doing about the same. She says that shows the need for the federal funding.
The individual families that may be struggling to stay afloat aren’t the only people who will see a benefit from those dollars. The people who own and operate the rental properties they live in are also seeing some relief.
“We have a landlord saying what can I do to help my tenants, because I don’t want them to end up being evicted when this is over but I have a mortgage to pay. What can we do?” Detrick said.
“$7.9 million coming to Brown County is huge. It’s nothing to sneeze at. You take this money, and not only does this help the families of brown county, but a lot of the landlords,” said Brown County Board Chair, Patrick Buckley. “They still have their upkeep in the buildings, they still have their taxes to pay on it, so I think it’s a win-win for the entire county and and its residents.”
Eligible households for assistance include:
- The applicant is at least 18 years of age.
- The applicant is a Wisconsin resident, and is listed on a current lease for housing in Wisconsin.
- At least one or more individuals in the household meets the following criteria: Qualifies for unemployment or has experienced a significant reduction in income, incurred significant costs, or experienced financial hardship during the period of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Demonstrates a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability; and has a household income at or below 80-percent of the area median income.
An eligible household that occupies a federally subsidized residential or mixed-use property may receive assistance, provided that funds are not applied to costs that have been or will be reimbursed under any other federal assistance.
“Poverty does not cause homelessness, but homelessness always causes poverty. That is not what we want to see in our community,” Detrick added. “The depth of the need in our community is far deeper than any of us, even those of us in this world, imagined it would be.”
Mortgage assistance is ineligible under this program. Utilities that are covered under the program include electricity, gas, water and sewer, trash removal, and energy costs. Funds will not be treated as income, which means it will not harm eligibility for other assistance programs they may be getting (FoodShare, Badger Care, etc.).
“It’s a pre-screen form, just to make sure that they’re eligible. Then we will reach out to them with the application form. Our belief is that we’ll be able to start getting dollars out probably next week,” Detrick said. “The program is set to run through December 31st. I’ll be surprised if, at federal level, they extend it beyond that. That’s where we are right now, but we can do a tremendous amount of good.”
Funding will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here to see if you’re eligible.
