Emergency Rent/Mortgage Assistance Program

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

County staff and Fair Housing Resource Center, a multi-dimensional nonprofit agency, collaborated to meet housing market challenges faced by area residents. The program provided emergency rent or mortgage assistance to income eligible households who experienced and recovered from a financial crisis. With the initial allocation of $120,000 in funding from Community Development Block Grants and a limit of $2,000 per household, the Emergency Rent and Mortgage Assistance Program intended to stabilize the housing of at least sixty households. Its secondary objective was to explore the terms and conditions in the housing market experienced by low income households in need by directing them to the Fair Housing Resource Center. Applicants to the program were required to demonstrate that their rental or mortgage delinquency was the result of a crisis; that the crisis was alleviated, and the resident was unlikely to fall behind in the future. Since the program’s implementation, 66 rental households and 19 owner households were assisted. The average rental rescue assistance was $1,300 per household, and the average mortgage rescue was $1,800 per household. After this first objective was met, the program’s secondary goal was accomplished as the program’s existence gave hope to others who had housing affordability problems by providing an avenue and incentive for them to seek housing counseling service.