As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, more and more workers across the country are finding themselves unemployed and without steady income. That’s caused a litany of problems — including challenges for millions of tenants struggling to make rent and utility payments without sufficient income.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown today announced he is introducing a bill called the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act aimed specifically at those renters.
“We cannot leave behind the millions of Americans who could be facing eviction without rent relief now,” Brown said today in a series of tweets. “The last thing we want during a public health crisis is people being forced out of their homes and onto the streets.”
The proposed $100 billion aid package would be be disbursed via the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s existing Emergency Solutions Grant network, meaning that local service providers would administer the funds. Those grants are usually used to provide assistance to those experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
The bill doesn’t set forth strict income eligibility limits, but HUD will be directed to spend 40 percent of the money on families making extremely low incomes (less than 30 percent of the Area Median Income).
Seventy percent of the fund would be spent on those households plus those making less than 50 percent of AMI, or less than $26,000 a year for a single person in Cleveland.
HUD would be directed to spend the remaining 30 percent on households making up to 80 percent of AMI, or about $40,000 for a single person in Cleveland. But HUD can also grant waivers for areas with a number of households above those thresholds if they are struggling economically — up to 120 percent AMI.
Those incomes would be based on the day a household applies — meaning those who have recently experienced job losses would be eligible regardless of their previous income.
The bill has received endorsement from housing groups like the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Low Income Housing Coalition and others, including the Coalition On Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which has been advocating for rent relief in future federal COVID-19 stimulus bills.
“Economists predict the coronavirus recession will continue well into 2021, yet stimulus checks are getting spent now and the extra unemployment boost expires in July,” the group said in a news release today. “If Congress doesn’t take action now on emergency rental assistance, we’ll see a tsunami of evictions that could swamp Ohio’s homeless system while we’re still dealing with the pandemic.”
While some Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate appear to support Brown’s bill, it faces an uncertain fate in Congress, which is currently wrangling with the next round of stimulus efforts to prop up the mostly locked-down U.S. economy.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2020.
It’s only money, right? We [the government] can print lots of it whenever we need!
The proposed $100 billion aid package would be be disbursed via the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s existing Emergency Solutions Grant network, meaning that local service providers would administer the funds.
What could possibly go wrong,,,.,.
Now I see renters mentioned, how about those with a mortgage?
Either way,,, this is Sherrod so this isn’t going anywhere.
How about helping out us property owners with our outrageous property taxes that just keep going up and up and up at every single election cycle thanks to voters (mostly renters) who vote yes on every single property tax levy Renewal AND increase!!!
at least he’s not saying “kill your landlord” yet
The Government cannot give something away without taking it from someone else.
Will you be on the ‘giving’ end or the ‘receiving’ end?
So let me get this right? During this pandemic, the following has happened?
People have gotten $1200 checks
People have gotten full unemployment benefits of $600 for 4 months – More than what they normally make
And are now about to have rent forgiveness?
Hmmm… And the people that don’t qualify for those get what? That isn’t even the big deal here. But at what point are people going to realize that the government can in theory “PRINT” money, but its going to come from somewhere at some point. The government isn’t just going to go in 3 -4 trillion dollars in debt and not get that money back. How about we let those people that are going on unemployment get back to work??? Even if you are far left on that idea, and you think people should have the option to stay on unemployment bc they are scared of the virus, which I would think is laziness and love free handouts, but even if you do that, I very much believe there are a bunch of people that would rather go to work and even make less than the $600 handout just so they can feel proud of what they do and provide for their family.
But we aren’t going to give them the option? What happens when the business they work at no longer exists bc the business goes under bc of this? Are we then going to give them another handout/stimulus package? How far does it go?
His wife is fat.
First Man to marry a Blimp
doesn’t anyone else find it strange that HR 748 the Corona stimulus package was introduced into congress in JANUARY 2019? 2019. a year before Corona virus.