Missouri has roughly $150 million left to distribute in federal housing assistance • Missouri Independent - Missouri Independent

• COVID-19
• Government + Politics

The manager of the authorities lodging committee estimated Friday that with an mean of $9.5 cardinal distributed per week, determination are ‘almost 4 months remaining’ until funds are wholly distributed

Missouri is astir 4 months distant from distributing each of the astir $600 cardinal successful exigency lodging alleviation assistance it received arsenic portion of national COVID alleviation packages, the Missouri Housing Development Commission was informed connected Friday.

The program, called State Assistance for Housing Relief Program, oregon SAFHR, includes funds to supply rent and inferior assistance to eligible Missourians affected by COVID-19, assistance to landlords, arsenic good arsenic mortgage assistance for homeowners. 

Missouri’s programme is accepting applications into 2023. The programme for renters volition screen up to 18 months of full assistance.

The national authorities allocated the funds successful December 2020 and March 2021, and galore states person already exhausted the backing and closed their applications.

Missouri’s authorities lodging concern bureau needed to physique a program from scratch to administer astir $600 cardinal successful rental assistance, causing delays aboriginal connected which threatened the national funds. Before the pandemic, MHDC administered lone astir $10 million a year, and gave backing to organizations alternatively than needing to reappraisal applications and disperse funds to landlords.

Last year, the authorities was in danger of losing the funds due to the fact that it had struggled to process applications quickly, but sped up the magnitude disbursed opening this year. 

Several states, including Oregon, New York, and Texas, had already utilized up astir their full backing stock by January of this year. 

The Missouri Housing Development Commission has delivered $445 cardinal of the astir $593 cardinal total, MHDC Director Kip Stetzler said Friday. 

Stetzler estimated that with an mean of $9.5 cardinal distributed per week, determination are “almost 4 months remaining” until funds are wholly distributed. 

According to the state’s dashboard, astir of the assistance has gone toward rental arrears and guardant rent assistance, and a fraction person gone to inferior assistance. Roughly 120,000 applications to the programme person been awarded truthful far.

According to the Eviction Lab astatine Princeton University, eviction filings successful Missouri declined aboriginal successful the pandemic but steadily accrued implicit 2020, and are present conscionable nether the historical averages. Missouri did not implement a state-wide eviction moratorium, though immoderate counties adopted protections for renters. There person been implicit 70,000 eviction filings since March 15, 2020, according to Eviction Lab data.

Stetzler said MHDC unit are moving to conception a semipermanent eviction prevention and lodging stableness program for erstwhile the one-time assistance runs out, and volition proceed to enactment with a web of nonprofits to administer the regularly-funded assistance programs. 

“While the national one-time rental assistance programme is nearing its end, nonstop assistance is inactive disposable done the existing nonprofit network,” Stetzler said.

State treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, who is simply a subordinate of the commission, congratulated unit for nearing completion of distributing funds, which helium said had earlier seemed insurmountable.

“It’s a batch of wealth to effort to get out,” Fitzpatrick said.