$50 Million In Rent Relief Still Available For County Residents

Speaker 1: 00:00 A program to provide rent relief for San Diego ones has not been as popular as city leaders expected fewer than 10,000 applications have been received leaving about $50 million left unspent mayor. Todd Gloria has even released a TV, commercial urging, struggling renters to take advantage of the program. Officials are now trying to figure out if the problem could be too few renters, know about the rent relief available, or maybe too few renters need it. Joining me is Phillip Molnar, a reporter for the San Diego union Tribune and Phillip, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:36 Thank you so much for having me, how Speaker 1: 00:37 Much money in total did the city get for rent relief and where did it come from? Speaker 2: 00:42 So they have $92.2 million in rent relief. And it's all basically from federal money for the different stimuluses, but how it was distributed was a little different. Some of the money came directly to the city. Some went through Sacramento and then was redistributed, but it all came out to this very large pot of money. And how do you qualify to get it? So you need to make a certain amount under the area, median income. You need to be able to prove that you have lost income due to COVID-19 that can be directly or indirectly sometimes it's you lost a job or you had medical bills related. So some sort of rough documentation that you've lost money due to COVID. And is Speaker 1: 01:23 This money just to pay back rent? Speaker 2: 01:26 Actually, it's very generous. It isn't just back rent. It can pay some of three months rent in advance. It can even pay utilities such as internet bill, even short-term hotel stays, but more basic stuff, probably like water and energy Speaker 1: 01:43 Who gets the payment. Is it the renters or the landlord? Speaker 2: 01:47 So the program is set up that it's supposed to go to your landlord. However, there is a different thing where if the renter's landlord is not participating, the city has set aside money to pay the renter directly. So it is possible for even either the renter or the landlord to initiate the process, to ask for the money. And even if, and this is a criticism I've heard, it puts a lot of the power in the landlord's hands, but the money the city does have money that can go directly to a renter. Speaker 1: 02:19 The challenges that may be keeping renters from applying for them. Speaker 2: 02:23 So a lot of people don't have access to computers. It's very difficult on a smartphone to apply. It's an online, only application. So you need to be sitting at a computer, either at a public library or some community groups have helped set up computers to get them there, to fill out the application. So that can be a bit of a barrier right there. Also, the city is working with 10 different organizations that cover 20 different languages. I couldn't even name 20 languages by the way, but covering 20 different languages to get the word out to San Diego County residents, that money is available and you should apply. Speaker 1: 03:01 No. Some people have speculated that it's possible. That's so much money for rent relief just isn't needed. Speaker 2: 03:08 That's right. You know, throughout this pandemic, I have been calling different landlord groups. I've been calling property management companies and I kept hearing the same thing over and over. That was not quite jiving with what I'd been hearing at a national level. And that was that they really didn't have a lot of people that were not paying rent. So it was sort of interesting in that regard, because it's surprising because at a national level, we're hearing about this eviction cliff. If you're hearing from a lot of politicians, they're saying we need to do this for rent. And obviously there's a lot of anecdotal sob stories out there. You know, I can always find as a reporter, I can do my best to find as many sob stories as possible of people that haven't paid their rents. You know, I've been at some horrible accident, but are those anecdotal stories, really the majority of renters and what I have found at least in San Diego County, I haven't talked to every single renter out there, but a lot of times when I talk to the very large property management firms that hold 700 to 900 apartments is they really don't have high delinquency rates, which is kind of goes against some narratives we've been hearing. Speaker 1: 04:18 Is it possible that this rent relief is just coming too late? Uh, that renters have made other arrangements and trying to find some money if they've lost their job. And they're worried about making the rent. Speaker 2: 04:31 Yeah. That's also a huge factor. I talked to the Chicano Federation this week and they deal with a lot of immigrants and refugees here. And some of those people, you know, don't qualify for these enhanced unemployment benefits and even the stimulus checks that came and a lot of other things that people benefit from. But what they found was that a lot of those renters found other ways to get their rent paid. They were extremely resilient. They usually got loans from friends or family. They just wanted to make sure they had a roof over their head because they didn't know if this money was coming. So you can kind of look at it like, well, we had a real gap in time between the first San Diego rent relief program, which was a 15.1 million to now in March, uh, with this 92.2 million. And that left, you know, roughly, let's say about six months where people really didn't know if any more money was going to be coming. So during that time, people may do. Speaker 1: 05:28 And is there a deadline for when the rent relief money now has to be spent? Speaker 2: 05:32 Yeah, it's sort of interesting, you know, and this is a changing thing where state requirements and even federal requirements have been loosened and the, you know, day to day. So this could always change. But when the San Diego housing authority got the money state requirement said that they had to spend 44.9 million by August 1st and then the federal requirements that they had to spend another 2.3 million by December 31st, although there were some provisions in place to extend the timeline, if needed Speaker 1: 06:04 Your city officials expect the demand to pick up Speaker 2: 06:07 City officials mainly think right now, the problem is that they need to reach more renters, almost all of them. I've talked to seem to think that they just haven't done a good enough job of getting the word out and are less worried about that. Maybe there's too much money in the fund. So I haven't heard really too much worry about not getting the money spent. And another thing to consider is the money in the fund can be used for all these utilities, all these different things, future rent, and it there's a strong possibility if enough people find out about and apply again and again, as they have hardship, it could get all spent. Speaker 1: 06:44 I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune, reporter Phillip Molnar, Philip. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for more information on the city's rental assistance program or to apply, you can visit COVID assistance dot S D H c.org.