Bay City News. [BCN]. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
California's COVID-19 rental support application website is available starting Monday, which will help eligible landlords and tenants cover last year's unpaid rent.
Funding for the support comes from the $2.6 billion in rental support California's federal share of the U.S. Treasury Department's emergency rental assistance program.
The application for California tenants and landlords is available at https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/.
Although some counties or cities have their own application portal for administering rental assistance, Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Housing, Consumer and Business Services Agency, said you can apply at any portal. The California state website will direct people to the appropriate website by city or county.
Eligible landlords and tenants may apply for reimbursement of 80 percent of the tenant's outstanding rent between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 if they accept the remaining 20 percent remission.
Tenants may also apply on their own if their landlords choose not to participate. Those who meet the eligibility requirements can receive 25 percent of the rent in forgiveness accrued between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. This is the amount tenants must pay by June 30 to avoid eviction under California's COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act (Senate Bill 91).
Some tenants may also receive assistance to cover 100 percent of utilities for the past year and 25 percent of future rent when these protections expire to stop evictions.
Applications are not assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, but will be accepted on a rolling basis. Eligible tenants must earn 80 percent or less of the Area Median Income (AMI) for their location and the state will give priority to those earning less than 50 percent of the AMI for their location.
Community organizations in each county are also available to assist with such requests. A list of support organizations and their contact information is available at https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/partner_resources.html.
For more information and eligibility requirements, you can visit HousingIsKey.com or call toll-free (833) 430-2122.
The form will be available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese and Korean. Support is available in over 200 additional languages via telephone.
