Cuyahoga County awards additional $300,000 to Lakewood Emergency Rent Assistance Program - cleveland.com

LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- For the 2nd clip successful the past fewer months, Cuyahoga County awarded the metropolis of Lakewood Emergency Rent Assistance Program (ERA-1) funds.

After Lakewood Community Services Center received $609,000 successful September for usage opening successful October, the region besides precocious provided a 2nd tranche of funds successful the magnitude of $300,000 to assistance the agency’s efforts done the extremity of the year.

Lakewood Community Services Center Executive Director Trish Rooney said there’s large request for the exigency rent and inferior assistance program.

“To springiness you an example, the $609,000 had to beryllium spent by Dec. 31,” Rooney said. “We’d person spent it each by the extremity of November.

“We anticipated we were astir apt not going to marque it each the mode done the extremity of the year. So arsenic we were moving out, I went backmost to the metropolis and asked if they could speech to the region astir getting further pass-through funding.”

Over the past 2 and a fractional years, Lakewood received much than $3.2 cardinal successful backing for its nonmigratory exigency rent & inferior assistance programme that served much than 1,500 individuals and astir 2,900 individuals.

“From the day (for a resident) to implicit an exertion to getting wealth into the hands of a landlord, we ne'er instrumentality much than a week, which is phenomenal,” Rooney said.

Funding criteria has varied during that clip with Rooney noting the aboriginal CARES Act capped the qualification astatine 30 percent of country median income, portion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) backing was 60 percent country median income.

“This peculiar ERA-1 funds radical tin gain up to 80 percent country median income,” Rooney said. “Having said that, we don’t service galore if immoderate radical astatine 80 percent. We tin if they travel to us. It’s bully to assistance them but our clients are mode beneath that threshold.”

Lakewood Community Services Center presently reports 93 percent of its clients are astatine 30 percent country median income, which equates to $27,750 successful yearly income for a household of four.

“It’s startling,” Rooney said. “The accent these radical are nether is ungodly due to the fact that erstwhile you person that benignant of income -- conscionable deliberation astir trying to rise a household connected $27,000 a twelvemonth -- it’s mind-boggling.”

Lakewood Mayor Meghan George said the nonmigratory exigency rent assistance programme played a cardinal relation of keeping residents successful their homes during the pandemic.

“There’s surely inactive a request successful the assemblage for this benignant of programming,” George said.

“We’re appreciative of the region for the further funds to assistance support Lakewood residents and families successful their homes.”

Read much quality from the Sun Post Herald here.