More than 37,000 NC residents applied for help with rent. The funds are set to run out.
The application period ended Wednesday for a state program created to help tenants avoid eviction due to COVID-19.
The Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions program, or HOPE, stopped accepting applications Wednesday at 6 p.m. because the program’s $117 million funding is projected to run out because of the volume of applicants, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
The program had received over 37,000 applications since it began on Oct. 15, according to a news release. That doesn’t include any applications that came in after Tuesday’s news release announcing the application deadline.
The program provides rent and utility assistance to tenants who make 80% or lower than the area median income; have faced financial hardship due to the pandemic; and are behind on rent or utility payments.
People enrolled in the HOPE program are eligible to avoid eviction through the end of the year, according to an executive order issued by N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper in October, The News & Observer reported.
Funds will be provided directly to the landlord for tenants accepted to the program.
State officials are working to provide more pandemic relief funding to continue assisting North Carolina residents who may lose housing due to the coronavirus, the DPS said.
In need of more funding
Samuel Gunter, executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition, said more funding always was needed to further the life of the program.
“It’s not enough, because we’re already going to run out of money with only a month-and-a-half of the program existing,” Gunter told The News & Observer Tuesday. The N.C. Housing Coalition is a nonprofit organization that advocates for affordable housing statewide.
Gunter said further action is needed and that long-term funding is the only way to adequately supplement any housing assistance program.
“Everyone’s trying to find the simple silver bullet that isn’t money,” Gunter said. “We’re talking large scales of people, large scales of folks who are unable to make payments. If money isn’t part of that, then you’re not really getting to anything with any substance.”
Gunter also said any future funding of the program should be expanded to include homeowners facing foreclosure.
“What is absolutely needed is an expansion of the whole program moving forward into the future, something that includes homeowners and putting more resources into it,” Gunter said.
CDC eviction moratorium
In early September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted an eviction moratorium. To be eligible, tenants must provide a sworn affidavit that testifies they’re unable to pay rent due to COVID-19 and that they have exhausted all other options to provide payment.
Under the CDC order, if landlords take any action to remove a tenant from their property, they can face criminal prosecution.
Following questions of enforcement, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order Oct. 28 clarifying that state and local law enforcement would enforce the order.
The governor’s order also requires that landlords provide tenants with documentation that they can use to provide the affidavit required by the CDC.
The governor’s order is set to expire at the end of year. Gunter said it helps but that more needs to be done to keep people in their homes going into 2021.
“We need to step into that role and take responsibility for it,” Gunter said. “We’re looking at a pretty scary wave in 2021.”
Gunter said that eviction moratoriums must be paired with rental assistance to keep people in their homes.
“Ultimately, the goal is to keep people in their homes, and if you’re going to keep folks in their home, someone’s got to be making rent. Someone’s got to be making mortgage payments,” Gunter said.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 7:29 PM.