COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The new COVID-19 relief package on the table waiting to be signed may continue to bring relief to people who are unable to pay their rent because of the pandemic.
This package not only extends the eviction moratorium, but it also provides $25 billion dollars in rental assistance.
“That means the City of College Station will receive another allocation," said Debbie Eller. Eller is the director of Community Services for the city. "I anticipate we’ll do continued needs assessment. We’ll reach out to those apartment complexes that we helped before, to those landlords that have received payments from us before on behalf of the tenants and make sure that that’s still an existing need. We anticipate this will be a need for a long time and so we will anticipate making funds available."
When the pandemic hit, the City of College Station created grant programs to help local families pay their rent. These programs have almost been tapped out.
“From what we understand, the need is being met," Eller said. "However, there are continued needs and so we need to roll more money out so we don’t get to a point where there’s a stress on families. They’re facing eviction even though there’s an eviction moratorium included in this. Hopefully we can alleviate some of that worry and let families focus on other things other than getting their rent paid."
Each tenant’s lease varies, but the maximum amount of rental assistance for each household is $1,000.
“We qualify them based on their income at that point in time," Eller said. "We don’t look at what they made last year, we look at what their current situation is so that we know that they’ve had changes, they have reduced hours, their job has ended or something like that. We look at what’s happening right now."
Eller added the staff of College Station plans to take another contract to City Council in January to get more funds to the families who need them. If there are community needs that are not being addressed, Eller encouraged people to contact the city directly.