Committee hears about need for more rental assistance money

Members of the City Council Housing and Planning Committee heard about the dire straits that many renters face, not just in Austin but across the country. Community displacement prevention officer Nefertitti Jackmon told the committee on Tuesday that the program she administers, which provides rental assistance to people facing eviction, will run out of money in May.

Jackmon said her group operates an application portal for people applying for rental assistance. However, she said, “We had to close the application portal because we currently have over 7,500 applications (and) we only have $9.6 million.” Each week, she said, 50 eligible applicants are randomly selected based upon geographic and income criteria. The highest priority is helping those with the lowest incomes, she noted.

The maximum amount a family can receive in one year is $6,000, with the average assistance at about $4,200, Jackmon said.

The city group works with El Buen Samaritano to help people reach agreements with landlords and avoid eviction. However, as it currently stands, the program will stop operating in May unless Council authorizes additional funding.

According to a study by Harvard University, “Climbing rents in recent years propelled US cost burdens to staggering new heights: in 2022, half of all US renters were cost burdened. This all-time high of 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities. And while rental markets are finally cooling, evictions have risen, the country is seeing the highest homelessness counts on record, and the need for rental assistance is greater than ever.”

The share of renter households in the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown area that are considered cost-burdened is estimated to be 47.7 percent, according to city figures. That means nearly 95,000 households are cost-burdened.

Council Member Chito Vela told his colleagues he remembered trying to get more funding into the budget for rental assistance last year. He said he would like the committee to recommend to the full Council that money be added to the budget to ensure that the program can continue through the end of this budget year in September.

Assistant City Manager Veronica Briseño was in the audience. She told the committee there were ongoing conversations in the city manager’s office about additional funding for the program.

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