Long Beach residents who are behind on rent due to COVID-19 have received $50 million in rental assistance to date, and another $28 million is expected in the city’s coffers by way of loans from the State.
In February 2021, the Long Beach Emergency Rental Assistance Program (LB-ERAP) was established to assist tenants facing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
An initial $30.2 million in federal and state funding made LB-ERAP the largest rental assistance program in the City’s history.
It later swelled to $64.5 million—which will be fully spent by June—and it’s expected to swell once again thanks to another round of federal funding and cash flow loans from the state to help the program continue in the interim.
The Long Beach City Council unanimously approved a resolution to request and accept these loan funds on Tuesday, May 10.
“We’re applying for $28 million through this round but we will have an opportunity to apply for additional funding equal to or even greater to that amount,” said Patrick Ure, Housing and Neighborhood Services bureau manager. “So we could end up with another $50 to $60 million to use for the program.”
Under the program, eligible tenants could have their back-due rent or utility payments paid for a total of 18 months worth of rent. In the initial program, which has now ended, tenants could also have up to three months of prospective rent paid by the City.
The program has assisted 6,500 applicants to date, according to Deputy Director of Development Services Oscar Orci, a fraction of the application backlog.
Though the current round of funding can only be disbursed to existing applicants who applied by March 31 of this year, Ure said future programs may allow the City to reopen applications.
“We know that a significant population in our city are feeling increased impacts from COVID-19, particularly families that make below $70,000 a year,” Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said. “They’re the ones impacted by inflation, rising costs of housing, rising costs of fuel prices, all of those things.”
It has long been known that if California cities did not distribute their rental assistance funds, those funds would be taken and reallocated to “high-performing” jurisdictions—like Long Beach—that distributed at least 65% of their rental assistance funds.
“The federal government, the Treasury, has allowed us to apply for funds that were clawed back from agencies that did not do as well as we have done with our program,” Ure said.
Ure said they’re “working on” those federal funds. In the meantime, Senate Bill 115 established a state rental assistance cash flow loan program, whereby cities like Long Beach can receive loans in monthly payments while they await federal funding.
If the Treasury does not grant Long Beach the expected funds by June 30, 2023, the State will forgive the remaining balance on the loan—the amount not covered by federal funds.
“Whatever we can do to deploy more resources and keep people in their homes, I think is good for our city,” Richardson said.
And the people thank you. Im sure all the people thank you . the city has helped a lot of people. We are truly blessed to be able to have this assistance. It has changed lives.