The Tribune contacted government agencies involved in the program and found that none of them including the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which runs the state rent relief program track how often this happens. ) On Wednesday, the head of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs took questions from lawmakers about the troubled rollout of the program. Newly homeless, Gates stood on the curb in the cold guarding her belongings until a friend could get off work to help her move them. What do I do? When Congress set aside more than $46 billion for emergency rental assistance, they intended for that money to keep people in their homes, said U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat from Houston. Interests Altogether, about $2 billion of the federal rental and utility assistance funds approved by Congress last year were earmarked for Texas. Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. All applications will be processed in the order they are received, giving priority to those households facing evictions. Body: Case ID. Regardless of your immigration status, you will be eligible for rent relief if you have been adversely affected by COVID-19 or are . <> It is kind of a miracle that they are able to do it.. Texas received more than $2 billion out of the American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package President Joe Biden signed into law last year, to set up the Texas Rent. Since the program launched in February 2021, TRR has provided over $2 billion in emergency funds for rent and utility relief, served 250 Texas counties and prevented evictions for over 21,000 households. Those facing eviction should seek legal assistance, go to their eviction hearing, and stay in communication with their landlord and the court. 2021 Program Information. The Texas Rent Relief Program will be run by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. 1001 provides, among other things, that whoever knowingly and willingly makes or uses a document or writing containing any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States will be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both. "The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a significant financial strain on many Texans, and the Texas Rent Relief Program will provide an incredible lifeline to households in need of assistance on their rent and utility payments," said Governor Abbott. 0000005047 00000 n Governor Abbott and TDHCA launched the Texas Rent Relief program in February 2021 the first statewide rent and utility assistance program for qualifying households throughout Texas. Then in December, the property owner filed an eviction case against Gates and gave her a notice to vacate. Housing advocates acknowledge the challenges of standing up such a massive program, but Christina Rosales from the group Texas Housers said theres a larger issue at play here: As a state, Texas regularly fails to focus its vast resources on helping people in the midst of a disaster. Her landlord gave her until the end of May to do so. 0000020158 00000 n A scathing staff report from the Texas House Urban Affairs Committee released Monday details a host of issues that have plagued the more than $1 billion rent relief program. I"OqC)RrQBY( ,VN?4Tmj|e@O)&$O&WrVRKT0X5Vrs'O. {wKPK?c- C <=fL5h|'(d-$7(r ~9 qFP9v8i-LKp Nx@`{>-aB58c$f_Q. If you are concerned that a community is not in compliance, please contact the TDHCA at 512-475-3800. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs is committed to expanding fair housing choice and opportunities for Texans through the administration and funding of affordable housing and homeownership opportunities, weatherization, and community-based services with the help of for-profits, nonprofits, and local governments. Approval Notification: The landlord, tenant, and/or utility provider will now be notified automatically that a payment has been approved if an email address is present in the Neighborly system, and the notification will include the payment breakout. "To date, Texas Rent Relief has served . KPRC 2 Investigates has received dozens of complaints from people all . It takes away your pride and makes me feel like I failed as a parent. Texas law allows landlords to collect "reasonable" late fees if any portion of the rent remains unpaid more than two full days after it was due. We look at Texas Tech's award-winning magazine. Scott said she complained to a program staffer in October about her landlords conduct, and the staffer referred the complaint to the programs anti-fraud division. The TDHCA runs the Texas Rent Relief program. First-time TRR applicants may be eligible for up to 18 months of rent and utility bill assistance, either with past due payments or a combination of past due and up to three months of current and future payments made on their behalf. Learn how Section 8 provides rental help Find housing services and information Texans can get housing assistance whether they live in rural or urban areas. from 8 AM - 9 PM ET. That happens even when tenants win their eviction cases in court. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. For example, the program bars landlords from accepting rent relief payments after they evict a tenant. 2401 E 6th Street, Ste 3037, PMB 153, Austin, TX 78702. Cities and counties that operate local rental assistance programs have $368 million. But none of the agencies contacted by the Tribune would say whether any landlord has been credibly accused of taking rent relief money and improperly ousting their tenants, or whether they have imposed penalties on landlords for doing so. Then she gave up her job at the Katy hospital to care once more for her youngest daughter. If you need assistance with a previously submitted application, our customer service staff can assist you by phone by calling 1-833-9TX-RENT (1-833-989-7368). 0000000016 00000 n 0000068079 00000 n The next month, their landlord started the eviction process, even though Scott, 37, had taken the rental office staffs advice and requested help from Texas $2 billion, federally backed rental assistance fund. For others, health issues made going to work unsafe while the pandemic raged out of control. Scott wanted to know: What happened to the rent relief money? Request for assistance has been verified and approved. "I urge qualifying households to apply for this program once applications open on February 15th. Please reload the page and try again. Maybe the money will be returned to Treasury and the wrong will be righted for the government, Ordua said. My landlord has signed up with bill.com to receive payment via ACH, so hopefully, he will receive payment sooner than later. Mar 1, 2023. events. AUSTIN, Texas, March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) announced it will re-open the Texas Rent Relief (TRR) application portal from March 14-28 in order to accept new applications for a remaining $96M in TRR funds. Failure to respond would only delay the application process. Failure to respond will delay application review and timeline for approved payments. 0000010218 00000 n Eviction Intervention Program For Renters If you live within Harris County or Houston city limits and your landlord has already taken you to court for eviction, you may be eligible for eviction intervention rental assistance through the Houston-Harris County Emergency Rental Assistance Program. To help with emergency housing needs, HAP has two components: rental assistance and relocation assistance for qualified households facing housing instability. 0000002829 00000 n TDHCA says it has received more than 7,500 complaints through the hotline not all of them related to fraud, waste or abuse but the agency wont say how many times it has referred cases to outside agencies for investigation. After logging in, click on the application status and check with the details provided. According to the National Housing Law Project, 86% of the 119 lawyers across the country who responded to a survey gauging how the end of a federal moratorium on evictions was affecting tenants said they had seen cases where landlords either declined to apply for assistance from rent relief programs or took the money and proceeded to kick out their tenants. Faced with a pot of federal money larger than the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs' annual budget, the state agency contracted Houston-based management consultancy Horne LLP to run the Texas Rent Relief program, agreeing to pay the company more than $42 million. In order to collect this late fee, the landlord must have included notice of it in a written lease. Sign up here. Scott had landed a new job as a dietician at a local hospital when she returned from work one afternoon in early October to find most of her belongings spread out on the lawn and the locks changed. Members in the News (MEMBERS ONLY) Some households will still qualify for the program while others will not. the service staff will examine your application and once it is approved you will be able to claim emergency rental . Payment in Progress If your request has been approved Tenant and landlord, if participating, will receive email notifying of approval and, separately, to set up payment in Bill.com. Member Grand Openings (MEMBERS ONLY) If a landlord is not paid, the payment will be made directly to the tenant. In our view, the judge made a mistake letting the trial proceed as soon as [the property manager] confirmed that the owner had a pending application for rental assistance, Stamm said in an email. hb``b``yX01 $J|*]gw"sq7X>6>^`hD"0Q{in00 Y? ` q endstream endobj 5 0 obj <> endobj 6 0 obj <>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 792.0 612.0]/Type/Page>> endobj 7 0 obj <> endobj 8 0 obj <> endobj 9 0 obj [/ICCBased 22 0 R] endobj 10 0 obj [/Separation/Red 9 0 R<>] endobj 11 0 obj <> endobj 12 0 obj <>stream Read on for a look at these new changes, and visit our Rent and Legal Assistance page on the COVID-19 & Texas Law guide for more information. The application software issue has been resolved. Prior to 2019, there was often confusion about what counted as a "reasonable" late fee. Tenants who are eligible for an Additional Funding Request may submit requests for rental and utility assistance for the current month and two future months. State of Texas | Statewide Search | Report Fraud in Texas | Texas Statutes, Site Map | Library Policies | Accessibility | Employment Opportunities, 205 West 14th Street, Austin, Texas 78701-1614. In late March she started a new job teaching at an early learning center. Applications in this set-aside will be processed first to decrease application processing time and increase the likelihood of evictions being diverted. Questions? Larry Berman New Keynote Speaker For Vietnam War Conference Banquet. New applications are not being accepted. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Eligibility For tenants: Household income at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) Household has been financially affected by COVID-19 pandemic For landlords: Assistance for rent no older than April 2020 While applications can be made online through the programs portal, the TDHCA call center at (833) 9TX-RENT (833-989-7368) will be available to submit applications over the phone. Evaluating the. trailer <]/Prev 155979>> startxref 0 %%EOF 48 0 obj <>stream News from Members (MEMBERS ONLY) The program will also have a call . Late fees over 12% of your monthly rent (10% for properties with more than four units) are unreasonable. TDHCA has taken very seriously the responsibility of helping Texas renters and landlords overcome the financial burden brought on by the pandemic, Tirloni said. 0000014023 00000 n Lee Reznicek, a property manager who oversees Gates former home for Austin-based Hill Country Property Management, declined to comment when reached by email. This is our third or fourth round of rental assistance for some of these folks, and the documentation process for each round has been different and the application process has been a little bit different, he said. . Eligible households can apply online or over the phone for first-time or additional program assistance. We have more than $1 million of unpaid rent dating back to March of last year, said Ian Mattingly, president of LumaCorp, which manages about 7,000 rental apartments in Texas. Landlords and tenants are particularly put on notice that 18 U.S.C. your Phone number -Specify Landlord or tenant rental assistance. The same day, her landlord told Johnson her lease wouldnt be renewed when it expired the following week, she said. After weeks of phone calls, a Texas Rent Relief program staffer told Scott that her former landlord had indeed received the rent relief money in mid-November more than $11,000, enough to cover the six months back rent they owed. Find programs to help you with rent or utility payments, help you find a rent-reduced apartment, help you find emergency housing or homeless shelters, and more. 0000003018 00000 n When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type. Lifestyle Depending on each applicants needs and eligibility, this could include past-due payments or a combination of past-due and up to three months of current and future payments made on their behalf. On July 28, 2021, the FHFA announced protections for tenants of multifamily properties with loans backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Macrequiring landlords to give tenants 30 days' notice before. The Texas Rent Relief Program was launched by TDHCA on February 15th to solve this problem and bring relief to millions across the United States. It got off to a rocky start when it signed up just a few hundred people in the first few months. The program was originally launched in February 2021 and is administered by the . One landlord received federal money through the Texas Rent Relief program and later chose not to renew their tenants lease which was legal in that case. 5309 Decker Dr. 281.424.5752. But Musselman expressed sympathy for the landlord, noting that they had gone 11 months without rent from Gates. If your landlord breaks their agreement with the Texas Rent Relief program, you may file a complaint with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. "Funding is limited, so anyone who needs help paying their rent and utility bills should review the program requirements now, gather all the necessary paperwork ahead of time, and be ready to apply on March 14.". A Texas rent relief program has been plagued by problems. Prior to any payment being made to a tenant directly, TRR will make three attempts to request that the landlord participates in the program via email, phone, or text, over no less than a 5 calendar-day period. The state-level program meant to help both Texas renters impacted financially by the pandemic and their landlords announced Thursday morning that it would stop taking new applications for . The federal government and the state of Texas both had people like Scott and her family in mind when they hurriedly created a safety net for struggling renters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Some rent relief programs, including the Texas Rent Relief Program, will make your landlord forgo all unreasonable late fees. They told her there was no way to see if they had received it, she said. And more is on the. by Joshua Fechter You can login to the site as a landlord or as a tenant. But it's not a fast process. Home ?$.#jq&LS1-b'u)N 2@x{'Y( V7\T ;z6!EDg"AGbDdWo,/si,TZp em;82os"zrD QV~ns+8ce1|NV ;H@>I]\IjA $_BM (2`n,e072 #q9u_)&er&s9%\!_kE\^9, 3/11/2021 Funding Update: $918,238,535 available Mon: 8 to 5pm. The application portal opens Tuesday, March 14th at 8 a.m. and closes Tuesday, March 28th, at 11:59 p.m. To contact the Texas Rent Relief program, please call 1-833-9TX-RENT (1-833-989-7368). Eligible households can apply for assistance online at TexasRentRelief.com or over the phone by calling the TRR call center at 833-9TX-RENT (833-989-7368). Postal Mail: Other organizations That help paying rent in Houston. The TRR portal will accept new applications starting Tuesday, March 14 at 8 a.m. CT through Tuesday, March 28 at 11:59 p.m. CT, to help eligible households with rent and utility payments. The morning of her March 18 eviction hearing, a Texas Rent Relief staffer told Johnson that her landlord had cashed the check two days earlier and gave her the check number. But Johnsons victory was short-lived. A spokesperson did not respond to the request for comment. They can visit https://texaslawhelp.org/eviction-referral or call 855-270-7655 for help understanding their options and to seek free or low-cost legal assistance. Do you value our journalism? Theres no excuse, Rosales said. The Texas Rent Relief program was set up to help people pay their bills. For more information on returning a payment, email [email protected]. Member Editorials (MEMBERS ONLY) A free legal hotline available to South Texas residents. In these cases, payments will be made directly to the tenant, who then is required to pay the landlord. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has received approximately $1.3 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance funds from the newly passed Coronavirus Relief Bill Rental Assistance Program. Johnson had asked the office manager whether they had received the latest check, she said. Monday-Friday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. CST Help is available in multiple languages. On January 24,2023, Treasury released the reallocation amounts for ERA2 Quarter 2 General Pool Reallocation and Designated Voluntary Reallocations; Guidance: On January 5, 2023 Treasury published an updated version of the ERA1 . Any allegations that either a renter or a rental property owner isnt following the program rules should be reported to the program to be investigated, he said. Since their October eviction from their Katy apartment, Scott and her four children have lived in hotels and other temporary settings. By clicking the plus sign by one of the listed programs, the page will expand and provide the full details of that program. Sharing of Certifications: As outlined in the Tenant and Landlord certifications, the program may share a copy of the tenant, landlord, or utility provider certification with the tenant applicant, a user approved by the tenant, or an associated landlord or utility provider, as well as counsel for any of these parties. But none of that recovered money is helping tenants ousted from their homes, said Julia Ordua, Southeast Texas regional director for Texas Housers, a nonprofit low-income housing advocacy group. 0000098112 00000 n At a time when newsroom resources and revenue across the country are declining, The Texas Tribune remains committed to sustaining our mission: creating a more engaged and informed Texas with every story we cover, every event we convene and every newsletter we send. Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. The details for each program are available below. If you need assistance with a previously submitted application, our customer service staff can assist you by phone by calling 1-833-9TX-RENT (1-833-989-7368). For the past year, housing advocates have been pointing to the slow-rolling housing crisis brought on by the pandemic.